Dual Pressuretrols

Yeshwant

Help! I am replacing a 1940's American Radiator Co. boiler with a Smith Series 8 boiler in my residence. The Smith came with a Honeywell 404A Pressuretrol. The distributer told me I also needed a Honeywell L404F Pressuretrol (per code) to the sum of $200+. What is the purpose of two pressuretrols and is it common for codes to require two? My old boiler only has one. How would these need to be wired? Any reason why I couldn't recycle the old one? Thanks in advance.

Rich Kontny_3

Redundancy

Since your presure control is a very important component on your steam boiler it is very wise to have backup or redundancy. A steam boiler running wild can do many crazy things other than blow off the 15# relief. You can create dry fire conditions, vaccuum situations and permanent boiler damage situations.

Once again this is a case of a code requirement that most certainly gives you not only piece of mind but additional safety for you and other occupants of the house.$200.00 is money well spent in this case!

I am a little concerned if you are not a tradesmen doing this kind of work. There are sizing and most certainly piping issues when you replace a boiler.

Rich K

J.C.A._3

Personally,

I like to see the second pressuretrol be a manual reset type. If that puppy trips the power to the gas train is interrupted and whatever it costs is SURELY less expensive than replacing a cooked boiler.

In Ma. this is code over (I think) 200,000 btu's, or in any commercial building. Insurance companies LOVE them, and certainly seem to overlook a lot of other questionable things I see... when they are installed. Chris