Burderus Logano G115 dripping a lot of water, help!

Trinity

Greetings Oil Furnace Experts,

I have a Burderus Logano G115 system.  There is an open-ended copper pipe on it that hangs straight down almost to the floor ... not sure what it's meant for, maybe when there is too much water in the system or something, but it drips water on occasion and I have a bucket to capture the water which I empty every few months.

Yesterday, I discovered a broken or leaking pipe out near the main that connects to the city water supply.  The city utility guy has been out twice and after a ton of digging, we still can not figure out exactly where the leak is.  However, after I discovered this outdoor pipe leak my furnace started really dripping water fast out of that copper pipe.  I have to dump the bucket like every hour now.

Any ideas why?  I checked the crawl space and ground areas between the furnace itself and the leaky pipe out by the street and they are dry.

Do you think these problems are related, or not?  I can't help but think they are since they occurred at the same time.  Regardless, how do I fix that furnace drip?  Oh and yes, I did shut off the faucets that supply the furnace.  Still dripping!

Thank you all so much :-)

Trinity in Seattle





 

Jean-David Beyer

Four possibilities...

I am not a heating contractor.



There seem to be four possibilities, it seems to me.



1.) There is a pressure relief valve on your boiler and the output of that valve must drop to within 6" of the floor in most places. So that valve could be leaking. These leak if the pressure gets too high in your boiler (typically 30 pounds per square inch is too high). One possibility is that your pressure regulator valve is defective or set incorrectly. A second possibility is that the relief valve is bad. The third is that your expansion tank is water logged (old type pressure tank) or the expansion tank's diaphragm is defective (new type expansion tank). All these should be attended to very soon, surely before you use the boiler again. You should have a professional look at this because if this fails, you could lose your house or life.



2.) the other pipe that should go close to the floor is in your backflow preventer that is part of the water makeup system for your boiler. It could require replacement. I do not know if it is cost-effective to repair such a valve, or if the parts to do it are even available.



3.) could your water pressure coming into your house be way too high?



4.) if you have an indirect-fired hot water heater, there could be a leak between the domestic water and the boiler water.