Steam Furnace

Paul S_3

what does he mean by burnt? do you have oil or gas?...and how old is the boiler?

Rock4

Steam Furnace

Recently my furnace was smoking and a "repair guy" came over and looked inside. He said the inside was burnt and couldnt be repaired. Could this be true? I've heard furnces can be rebuilt depending on the dmamage. I have an old house with steam heat. Are steam furnaces different and more expensive? Also are they more efficient than other types of heating? Thanks for any help.

Unknown

never heard of

I've seen, worked, installed steam BOILERS. Never heard of steam furance.

Steamhead (in transit)

Sounds to me

like it might have fired without enough water in it. If so, it's probably toast. But get a real steam man in there to verify this. Click on Resources above, then Find a Professional and follow the instructions. If you're in the Baltimore area, contact me.

What to replace it with? If you're burning oil and don't plan to switch, the Burnham MegaSteam is the boiler to have. Its 3-pass design makes it more efficient and easier to service than any other residential steamer out there.

Unfortunately, Burnham so far does not offer a gas version of the MegaSteam. Most installers use atmospheric gas boilers, but these are not as efficient as they should be. This is partly because the burners are placed completely underneath the cast-iron sections ("dry-base" design), so they lose a lot of heat from the base.

Two better choices for gas are the Slant/Fin Intrepid and the Smith G-8 boilers. These are both wet-base oil boilers that have been certified by their manufacturers for use with powered gas burners. The wet-base design almost completely surrounds the flame with cast-iron having water on the other side, so their thermal efficiency is better (more of the heat reaches the radiators).

Here are a couple of pics. They look like oil-fired boilers until you look closely and see the gas pipes going to the burners.

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Rock4

I meant I have steam heat (radiators), the furnace is run by oil. Thanks for the replys

Jack_44

Find a Pro

Hey Rock. You've come to the right place & already have gotten the attention of good pros. Go up to the Resources pad at the top of this page, click on it & choose Find a Pro. There are a lot of unqualified butchers out there and a lot of great pros here. Good luck.

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

Steamhead is right on..As always

I've got a Slantfin Intrepid gas boiler we will we comissioning this Wednesday and esitmates on the desk with 2 more and another probably on the way. Slantfin has one of the best steam technicians in the business in thier tech servcie department. This is always a good thing.

If you're in Northern Illinois or Chicago Metro region, give me a call


Boilerpro

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bruce_30

Water loss out of return line main vent

I am loosing water out of the main vent every time the boiler starts up in the morning.I have changed the vent and also changed the other 2 vents on the returns.I installed cleaner and even skimmed the boiler.Pressure trol is as low as it can go.The boiler is about 1 1/2 yrs old and just stated doing this in Jan.When it comes on in the morning it has to climb from about 58-66.Is there anything else i can try.

Steamhead (in transit)

Either you have very wet steam

or the return line is clogged. Either way, the system would probably bang...............

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bruce_30

The system does not bang and i checked the returns and they are clear including the Hartford loop.

scrook_2

furnaces vs. boilers

Technically a FURNACE heats air, but a BOILER heats (and for steam, boils) water -- regardless of fuel type -- but it's not uncommon to hear boilers called furnaces, so we knew what you meant, even if we pretend we don't .

steve_29

Steamhead, It struck me and I'm curious why you would assume they didn't have a real "steam man" that told them they had a problem?

I know your well aware that most homeowners usually get it wrong, a "steam furnace", if you get my drift.

Larry C_13

How do you know it's the main vent?

Bruce, I am just a home owner, but how do you know it is the main vent where the water is going? If you can see the water gushing out, then that is a good indication.

"I installed cleaner". What exactly did you do?

Do you have enough height between the boiler waterline and the vent?

Is the water level in the boiler correct?

Was any work done recently? Anything that might result in oil being present in the boiler? Oil plus phosphates equals soap.

Could you have a leaking water fill valve?

Did someone install a check valve in the return line to "solve" a low water condition?

Larry C

bruce_30

The water is gushing from the vent. I installed cleaner and skimmed the top of the boiler

Bruce

Steamhead (in transit)

Well, consider the quote

"the inside was burnt and couldnt be repaired"........

I would think an expert would be more specific than that.

And as for something that really couldn't be repaired, that sounds like it might be a dry-fire to me. But I've heard that said about things like burner tubes or chambers too, and these are replaceable without replacing the boiler.

A second opinion is clearly needed here. If the boiler is not repairable, what is the reason?

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Charlie from wmass

Bruce how much water are you putting into your boiler? Is your sight glass working? Are you returns clogged?

steve_29

SH while I'm not disagreeing with you,can we be sure that's what the technician actually said?

Most HO haven't a clue and they only realize they have a problem when they jump into a cold shower or the thingy on the wall doesn't make the house warm anymore.

Steamhead (in transit)

I doubt

the original poster was making that up. It sounds suspiciously close to some other things I've heard over the years.

We'll know for sure what's going on when the right pro looks at it.

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nicholas bonham-carter

leaking vent

if i were in your place, i would make sure there was only pure water in the boiler-no cleaner. so do some more skimming, and then drain, and replace all the left-over water. next i would get a good low pressure gauge and verify my pressure to be as low as possible-under 16 ounces. unfortunately, standard pressuretrols are often inaccurate at the necessary low pressure settings, so you probably will need a vaporstat. finally i would get some new main vents-the bigger the gortons, the better on the dry returns[protected against water-hammer].

if any water spitting issues remain, then check your piping for slope, and conformity with the mfg's piping layout for your model boiler.--nbc