new steam boiler

Sherlyn

Old steam boiler corroded, replaced with new steam boiler.  Always had small ticks when old system in place, but with new system  now hear water running through pipes and terrible banging and one radiator that used to be the hottest in the house now gets no heat at all.

jpf321

pictures please...

the first thing people may ask about is your "near-boiler" piping .. those are the pipes that are directly connected to the boiler. by posting as many pictures as possible of all controls, piping, settings etc it will give people the ability to do a virtual inspection. have a look at the pics which I posted of my system to give you an idea (link in signature) ..



the second thing people may wonder if whether your boiler was properly skimmed after installation...if the contractors installed it, turned it on, and handed you a bill .. chances are that it wasn't skimmed .. do a search on the forums for skim or skimming and you should turn up more info about the very easy yet often neglected process.



another thing that may have been overlooked in your installation was the OLD WATERLINE .. if you have any pics of the old system prior to replacement, that *may* help .. but it is very important which getting a new unit that the old waterline level was noticed and attended to.



those are the first things that pop into my head. but get us some pics first and people may have better or more focused ideas.



edit: Upon more consideration...i have a feeling that this is a water-level issue .. whereby the new waterlevel is HIGHER than the old level...this *may* be putting water where it isn't supposed to be .. there is a critical Dimension..It is called "dimension a" .. what kind of steam system do you have? 1-pipe into each radiator or 2-pipes? do you know where the end of your steam mains are? (steam mains are normally the overhead pipes that leave the top of the boiler .... they will *probably* end at a pipe which heads vertically down a wall ... the bottom of the overhead pipe at the "end" of the lest section of overhead pipe needs to be at least 28inches above the waterlevel in the glass gauge .. chances are that the water gauge and last section of pipe are in different parts of the basement .. so measure the distances from the ceiling to the water level and the ceiling to the bottom of last steam main section .. the difference of those two measurements should be at least 28".

Unknown

New Boiler

Hi Sherlyn- As Jbf321 mentioned, pictures of your new boiler would be a big help. Take them from all sides and try to get the whole boiler and the piping above the boiler in the pictures. If you take them in Hi Resolution we can blow them up if we need to look at detail.  Also you might let us know the make and model of your new boiler.

 I might also recommend that you look in the "Find a Professional" at the top of this page. Don't use the zip code part, scroll down the page and check by State. (The upgraded software in the zip code part isn't reliable) There are some really good steam pros listed there. You might want to check and see if one is located near you. We will also do our best on here to help you out.

- Rod

DavidK_2

It might just need to be cleaned

After a new boiler is installed, it has to be cleaned

Jamie Hall

and another thing...

water level. Steam systems are sensitive to the water level in the boiler relative to the rest of the piping.  If the new boiler was installed with the normal water level either significantly higher or significantly lower, you can have real problems.  Just the kind of problem is different, depending on whether it was installed higher or lower...  For some systems, the tolerance can be as little as a couple of inches.