low water or no? Advice wanted, please.

Chris Bain

In our one pipe system, I turned it off, let it cool, and manually filled the system until the glass was 1/2 to 2/3 full.  Then some water leaked out of the bottom of the unit, perhaps a quart or so.  The system turned on normally, and the glass is now apparently empty.  Not sure what the problem might be. My wife reports that she smelled the furnace burning in the middle of the night, but I know it can't be out of water.



By the way, the low water cut-off has a 5" handle control controlled valve which turns about 60-90 degrees one way or the other, with no indication of which way it should be.  I know only what I read in Dan's You Got Steam book, but don't know if I should call someone in to look the whole thing over at this point.



Advice truly sought...

crash2009

Pics?

Chris, could you post a couple pictures while you are waiting for an answer.  Where is the water on the floor?  Get a shot of that handle you ask about.  And if you are feeling energetic a couple shots of the boiler.

BobC

Maybe a hole in the boiler?

Chris,



When you say water is leaking from the bottom of the unit do you mean it is leaking from a fitting on the LWCO or is the leak behind the boilers jacket? It sounds like you are leaking water only when the boiler is filled to the normal level. Does it seem humid in the cellar?



If it's from under the jacket you could have a hole in the boiler at the water line. Keeping the water level a bit lower will do for a bit but you will be burning a lot of fuel if steam is escaping through a boiler hole. One other thought is to check your chimney while the boiler is steaming and see if your getting a lot of white smoke.



Please post some pictures and explain exactly where you saw the water coming from.



It's 14 in Boston right now and I'm sure it's cold where you are so it would be best to figure this out this morning. You don't want to go the weekend without heat.



Bob

Joe V_2

Chris,

Wives have an impeccable sense of smell.  If yours can smell the furnace from the bedroom, you likeley have a CO leak in addition to a water leak which means you really, really need to call a pro.



Let us know what the results are.

Chris Bain

low water or no?

I won't be back there until tomorrow morning, so I think I'm going to seek a local professional. If anyone has any suggestions for honest & reliable steam boiler folks with the "no job too small" attitude, send it to me at chris@chrisbain.com.  Thanks.

Joe V_2

you can try

the "find a contractor" button above or post your town here, I'm sure some one will help you find the right company,

Chris Bain

low water or no?

So it turns out that the boiler is cracked (OUCH!!!).  I suppose that the low-water cut-off device failed at some point in the last few weeks, and stopped shutting down the system AND stopped sending word to the automatic water feed, which SHOULD have been refiling the boiler.  So the water level must have gotten so low that it dry fired and cracked.  Then when I cooled it down and filled it, it ran down within a day or so, with a certain amount blowing through the crack, I'm sure.



It's 25+ years old, and the new one will have an electronic water feed, an electronic low water detector thing, and $5500 later (very rough estimate), I'll have a new boiler.



We're lucky that the new addition that we did to this house (3 floors incl basement) called for a second furnace (baseboard radiator), else this house would freeze this weekend.  I'm using the same company that put in that 2nd system, btw.



Wish me luck!

BobC

Auto water feeders

Chris,



Sorry to hear about the blown boiler.



Make sure the new auto water feeder has a meter on it so you can keep track of the water it uses and keep a log so you will notice any change in behavior. The one bad thing about auto water feeders is thaey promote neglect, the meter and log will prevent that.



Bob

crash2009

My condolences as well Chris,

I assume you will be replacing the boiler with another steam boiler.  There are some things that you need to do to make sure your contractor "gets it right"  On the Wall here, we read about bad replacements 5 times per day. 

1-measure your existing EDR and base the size of your new boiler upon that number.

2-insure that your new boiler will be "at least" piped to manufacturers specifications.  Boiler riser (s), header, equalizer, Hartford,

3-consider exceeding manufacturers specs and that your existing piping may need a slight upgrade.  Wet returns, System riser (s), Main vents.

Here is a video narrated by Dan H.  The Importance of Near Boiler Piping

http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/107/Steam-Heating/118/Steam-boiler-near-boiler-piping

Joe V_2

Look at the bright side,

No one was hurt. 



Plus, what better time to reduce your fuel bills.  Ask your contractor to measure EDR as mentioned because there is a good chance that you could and should use a smaller boiler than the one that died. If you can, your install cost may come down and fuel bills will be lower.

Also have ask him to provide you with a copy of boiler install manual so you know the piping is made to mfr's specs. 

Thanks for coming back and letting us know what happened.