Does the water line affect steam production?

Brad White_202

and you are right, it has to do with the amount of wetted surface shared with the combustion chamber. Ed is correct, the level is relative to the crown sheet, the last send-off in most boilers. The "1/3" level rule is a guideline, some are more, few are less, depends on the specific boiler.

Similarly to this, if the boiler has too high a waterline, there may no longer be the ideal surface area and of course too much water compromises the A dimension and can suck up water leading to wet steam.

As an aside, regarding wetted surface area, you will note that a steam boiler which can be configured with hot water has a greater BTU output capacity when used with hot water, due to increased wetted surface area shared with the combustion chamber.

JohnNY

I've wondered about this.

Will a boiler with two inches of water showing in the gauge glass make less steam than the same boiler showing six inches?

Does it stand to reason that more water in contact with more of the exchanger surface will produce a greater volume of steam?

I ask because I recently responded to a call for "some radiators not getting hot". There was nothing glaringly wrong but the boiler was acting as if it were undersized.
During the course of my site visit I added water and the problem seemed to go away.
It could have been something else, but it got me wondering...

Any data on this?

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Big Ed_4

Yes

Most boiler design level is 1/3 up to cover the crown of the boiler....