What is that in my sight glass?

crash2009

I recently got the near boiler piping re-done.  I ran the boiler for a couple hours last night.  What is that in my sight glass?  Is this an indication of something floating on the surface inside the boiler?  How and what should I do? 

gerry gill

That there be your typical schmutz!

skim the boiler water.

crash2009

schmutz removal

is what I am doing now.  I started out doing a cold skim.  I am adding fresh water at a very slow rate.  (about 5 gallons an hour)  after about an hour of that, I turned on the burners for awhile, and shut them off when I heard the garden drain hose start to gurgle.  Am I going about this in an OK manner?

gerry gill

perfect.

you may have to do it several times..only time will tell.

crash2009

While I had the hose out

I drained the system.  I am waiting for it to cool, then fill it up and boil the water again to see what floats up next time.  I think its pretty clean now, I boiled some of the drainage water on the stove, there was no foam.  So you guys just keep doing this over and over till nothing floats to the top?

gerry gill

well, we dont just do it over and over,

unless it needs it..if the boiler water in the sight glass is fairly steady, a little up and down while boiling, and no spill over from the upper sight glass valve down into the gauge glass, we leave well enough alone..we don't want to take on fresh water just for the sake of taking on fresh water..did that make sense?

crash2009

Yes

That makes sense.  I will run it like it is for a week, and if nescesary skim it again, without draining the entire system.