steam mystery

Steamhead (in transit)

replace it and see what happens.

If it still reads 10 pounds on the new gauge, you either have a bad pressuretrol or a plugged pigtail under the pressuretrol.

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Dan_43

bad pressuretrol or faulty pressure gauge

I have a 10 year old steam boiler for one of my rentals.
I replaced the rusted return that came out of the boiler, and in the process corrected poor near boiler piping which I suspect was why the pipe rotted out so quickly.
Now when I fired up the boiler the pressure gauge was reading 10lbs but the pressuretrol Cut-in is set to 1/2 and the diff is set to 1. nobody was complaining before I did the work but now I see this guage at 10 lbs. For all I know it been like that for years! I have read Dan's book so I know that a 1-2 is max.
I was thinking of adding a "T" to the safety release valve and adding a new pressure gauge for a 2nd opinon.
Those pressuretrol are not cheap.
What do you all think is going on?
Dan Z

nicholas bonham-carter

faulty pressuretrol

they're not cheap but they can misbehave right out of the box, especially when set to the lowest pressures we like for steam.
on my new boiler the first real firing, the p-trol allowed the system to go up to the 15 psi cut-out point!
a vaporstat will be better, but unfortunately not perfect judging by experiences of others on this site.make sure you have a good low pressure gauge [0-5 psi] mounted on the SAME pigtail as the vaporstat, so you can see what pressure you are producing.
they are not cheap, but neither is fuel [or air vents ].
it's always a good idea for your tennant to have enough money left over from paying the fuel bill to pay the rent!--nbc

World Plumber

When's the last time you cleaned the pigtail. If it's a black iron pigtail and you had rotted pipes just go get a brass pigtail. If the steam can't get to the pressuretrol It won't shut off.