Steam Controls

davanPa

We bought our first house and it has gas steam boiler.  Sometimes I have to knock on a grey "honeywell" box attached to a curved small pipe on the side of the boiler to get the boiler to fire when it is calling for heat.  What does that thing do and what is that big black "T" below it do?  Are they some type of controls ?

Charlie from wmass

That box is the Pressuretrol

Does it have a curly pipe under it? That may be clogged. 

Charlie from wmass

The tee is the low water cut off

It protects the boiler from dry firing. It needs drained (blown down) once a week.  The box controls the pressure your system reaches. Lower is better on that. If that curly pipe is clogged it can not read the pressure in the boiler so it ends up wasting your heating dollars big time while over stressing your air vents and valves on the rest of your system again costing you money. The book "Got Steam" s a good place to start learning in more detail about your system with out getting overly technical yet informative enough to be well worth the investment. 

davanPa

reply

Yes it has that pipe and I believe it was changed last year.  What does it do and what is the black thing it is attached to do.