steam heat

jbird

I have steam based heat in my new apartment. When we first moved in the previous tenants informed us that when we fill the tube on the boilder we should not go past half the tube or we would experience terrible banging sounds. Starting a week ago the system has automatically started filling itself back up and our landlord told us that he has not installed any new parts to auto fill the water. I have been having to drain two-three tubs of water on a daily basis to keep the water down, this still is not working. Is there something that should be adjusted on the boiler to stop this automatica fill-up? The terrible banging noise has caused a lack of sleep and dumping the tubs on a daily basis is strenuous work. I would greatly appreciate some help. Thank you so much!!

Rod

Leak into the Boiler.

If the boiler has a coil to heat domestic hot water this may have sprung a pinhole leak and is now leaking into the boiler. Either that or the water feed valve is leaking.  In either case it would be best to have a pro look at the boiler and determine the problem.

- Rod

ansky

Leak somewhere

It sounds like your boiler has an automatic water feed module.  When the water in the boiler gets too low the water feed kicks in to refill the water back to the set point.  So the question is why is the boiler losing water?  Here are some possibilities based on my experience with steam:



- leak in the boiler - is there any water on the floor near the boiler?

- a leak in one of your radiators - is there any water on the floor under or near any of your radiators?

- a leak in a main or return - might be hard to diagnose this since these pipes are usually inside the wall

- a bad steam vent - is there any water or large amount of steam being released from the vent on any of your radiators?



I had an issue last winter where my water feed kept kicking in, and the cause was a crack in one of my radiators which was causing the system to lose a lot of water.  From what I've been told it's normal for the water level in a boiler to go down a little bit over time, but certainly not on a daily basis. 

The other possiblilty that I'm thinking is, your auto water feed is set to fill to a high set point.  Every time you drain out some of the water, you are causing the water level in the boiler to drop below the minimum level, so the auto feeder then kicks in and brings the water level back up to where you started.  This would require a professional to change the setting on your auto water feeder.

 You should contact a professional to help diagnose the exact problem.

STEAM DOCTOR

leak

Sorry to disagree Anske. If there is a leak that causes water to leave the system(i.e. leak in boiler, radiator, air vent) then the auto fill is only replace the water that's leaving. It won't cause the water level to rise above normal. The auto fill might be devective, there may be a leaking coil(you can shut the valve to check) or the returns might be clogged. If the water level is consistently at the same(too high) level then the problem is probaly not the coil. It's advisable to call in a pro. Good luck.

STEAM DOCTOR

auto fill

You can also shut off the valve to the auto fill to see if the problem is auto fill related

ansky

My thought

BN -

"Normal" is whatever the water feeder max set point is.  For example, let's say the max fill setting is 75%, and the minimum setting (that causes the auto feeder to come on) is 25%.  So we start out 75% full which the OP thinks is too high, so they then drain some water to make the boiler 50% full.  Due to a leak somewhere, the water level drops to 25% because the water is not returning to the boiler.  This causes the auto feeder to come on and it fills the boiler back up to 75%.  So now the OP sees that the water level is too high, drains it back to 50%, and the cycle continues. 

But, if the OP decides to stop draining water and the boiler continues to fill above the 75% mark, then we know we have a different situation - possibly a clogged return like you mentioned.

That's how I'm interpreting the situation.  But I think we need more details from the OP to fully understand what is going on.

Charlie from wmass

Jbird

Double check the valve you opened to fill the boiler. I think it is not closing off all the way. Hold your ear to it you may hear it running. Even if you do not hear it running I would still say it is the fill valve.