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Constant fresh water

Bob L_3
Bob L_3 Member Posts: 16
in Strictly Steam
I have a church that called me with a boiler that is about 5 years old (one-pipe steam) Installed by others and shoe-horned into a pit, so piping the return was nearly impossible. Anyway the call was to repair a leak. To my suprise the return was spaying a stream of water a 1/2 inch in diameter 3 feet right to a floor drain. I thought it will be difficult to get wrenches in there but surely there's a way. I then asked him how long has it been leaking like this and he said 4 YEARS. He said they couldn't afford to repair it since it was just out of warranty from the installer and they said as long as the water is hitting the floor drain it's not harming anyone. Is there anything I should be recommending to help them out? I of course repaired the leak but I can't imagine the damage all the constant fresh water did.

Comments

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Freah Water Damage to the Boiler

    Hi- Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any sort of positive comment one can make on this situation except that now maybe they will save on their waterbill.  From your post you are already familiar with the damage that fresh water can do to boilers.  When new water is added to a boiler, it must always be brought to the boil to drive off the excess dissolved oxygen. It is this excess oxygen that causes corrosion.

    You might want to take a look at the following link and scroll down to the message by Ron Jr.

    http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/130323/Unreal-HE-corrosion

    He has posted a very good picture of a boiler section damaged by fresh water. You might want to print it off and show it to who ever is in charge of the church boiler so they will now understand what the potential damage of not fixing a fresh water leak can be.. 

    There is no way of determining exactly how much damage has been done

    other than tearing down the boiler so it's probably just better to monitor the situation and tell them to plan for a near future boiler replacement.

    - Rod
  • The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)
    The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro) Member Posts: 834
    Something else..

    It is likely there may be very heavy lime deposits in the boiler.  These could be removed with treatments.  I would suspect that the lime is thick enough that it is probably causing the heat exchanger near the flame to overheat.   Maybe a good cleaning will buy some time.  Of course if the metal is real thin due to the excess make up water, the acid treatment could eat through it.  Tough Call.

    I can only imagine all the fuel they wasted with that leak. 

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

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