Pressuretrol failure?

Gasper

Do pressuretrols fail very often, on smaller residential boilers?   

crash2009

Yes

 I read about them failing all the time.  Usually they fail because the pigtail or the boiler tapping is plugged.  But they also fail to On and Off where you set them.  It appears that they work best when set to the middle of their limits.  If their middle is what your system wants then thats great, but otherwise, tough luck.  I retired mine recently, and installed a 0-16 oz vaporstat set to cut off at 8 oz.  Even 8 oz is too much for my system.  Hi Pat!  Your re-pipe is working great!  The house is 70 F from top to bottom.  Ann Arbor Ken

Charlie from wmass

Not for me

It is usually the pigtail or the nipple that is threaded into the boiler being clogged.

nicholas bonham-carter

presuretrol problems

yes the pigtail can become clogged after a year's inattention; but i think the design is flawed in such a way as to fail when adjusted too low. some of the linkage becomes unhitched and then the pressure can gallop out of bounds. there seems to be no fail-safe, and that's why "they suck so badly" [in the words of others]. they are really only useful for keeping the installation manual open to the right page while you are installing a vaporstat!--nbc

crash2009

Pat, your email said

 the guy has replaced 3 p-trols in 2 years.  He is either unlucky, has electrical problems, or he just wore them out.  

Gasper

late response

Ken how is this for a late response......we rarely see them go bad.  But some troublesome jobs have us searching anywhere and everywhere for "mystery" problems.  The few that have gone bad are usually connected to a pigtail that is 100% jammed with crap.  How are your gas bills doing compared to before the repipe?

Gasper

late response

Ken how is this for a late response......we rarely see them go bad.  But some troublesome jobs have us searching anywhere and everywhere for "mystery" problems.  The few that have gone bad are usually connected to a pigtail that is 100% jammed with crap.  How are your gas bills doing compared to before the repipe?

gerry gill

we replaced one the other day,

it 'stuck' closed and the system built up enough pressure steam started blowing out of every old valves handle stem packing..we replaced it with a vaporstat..it seemed to work once it was 'rattled'' but we no longer had any faith in it..pigtail was perfectly clear..it was probably about a twenty year old pressuretrol tho..so it was probably just time..how many times can a spring, spring before losing some of its strength..