Cleaning Pigtail

George_36

I have one pipe steam.

The pigtail is on the side of the boiler, below the 0-30 pressure gauge. My service contract does not include cleaning the pigtail.

How do I clean the pigtail?

Thanks

jpf321

picture please...

a picture would help .. but ..



assuming the p-trol is on the pigtail.. shutdown power to the boiler .. safely disconnect p-trol wires .. unscrew p-trol .. carefully unscrew pigtail .. replace pigtail with new brass one (likely need a 90deg angle one) ..



or rinse thoroughly in soapy water, or boil in vinegar, or clean with a thick wad of pipe-cleaners, etc. the key is to get out all the black and ensure that water flows freely through the pigtail ..



rescrew into boiler with teflon tape .. rescrew on p-trol with teflon tape.. reattach 2 wires .. re-power the boiler

George_36

Pigtail pic

Thanks for the instructions.

The 2 wires you mentioned, are they the BX wires below the pressuretrol?

According to what I see, the pressuretrol is behind the pigtail, not on it. The pressure gauge is on the pigtail.

Do the instructions remain the same?

Tim McElwain

Save time and effort

once pigtail is removed and by the picture it will require removing gauge and pressuretrol.Heat the pigtail up by holding it over a flame, have a bucket of cold water handy, drop the hot pigtail in the bucket and it will blast anything in it out and you have a clean pigtail. Or just put a new brass one in that was purchased from a nearby heating supply house. 

jpf321

also

get a short nipple and a union and put it back together with a union. then next time you don't need to unscrew everything...just the union.. see my pics below in signature

jpf321

also

get a short nipple and a union and put it back together with a union. then next time you don't need to unscrew everything...just the union.. see my pics below in signature