Ignoring manufacturer's specs

JProbber

I've come to find that my Weil McClain 478, which has failed after 10 years, was installed with 3" cast iron header and risers rather than the 4" recommended by Weil.



Has this cost me a significant amount of steam loss to the radiation? And is this a common practice?



Thanks!

RDSTEAM

thats a whole lot of boiler

many things could have added to the destruction of your boiler, but yes a 4" header would have eliminated a lot of system problems that you may have been having. without seeing the rest of the header and riser piping its impossible to determine if that is the only culprit. What happened to the boiler? cracked section or corrosion?

JProbber

Not sure....

Haven't done a post-mortem yet; gotten progressively worse over the past couple years - steam billowing up chimney, not heating, etc.



The dealer insisted that their was a leak in the return, so the boiler was constantly filling with fresh water leading to scaling, etc. Some length of the return is hidden, so I couldn't completely disprove his assertion.



When I had the same dealer over to evaluate the situation, he flooded the boiler to find the leak. Water began to blast out of the burner housing. Basic FUBAR.

Charlie from wmass

Every short life

Weil McLain I see is not piped as it should be. I am not saying there are not other causes but poor near boiler piping I feel leads to unsteady water lines that then increase corrosion at the water line.

Charlie from wmass

The 478

has the option of using 2- 3" risers or one 4" riser. What is the size of the return piping and the equalizer? Do you have photos?

JProbber

WM Pic

Can't post pic for some reason (file too big?) .... will try later.

Charlie from wmass

Jpeg photos work best

if you want to post them here save them as Jpegs then post.

JProbber

try again...

It was a huge jpeg...here's the cut-down version.....

Charlie from wmass

can you give us a view

of the equalizer and return piping. What you have is "normal" , as in it is commonly done. It is not correctly piped but is closer to correct than the worst I have seen.

JProbber

Will do

I'll shoot some pix tomorrow. I appreciate your advice, sir.

Charlie from wmass

I was curious

Can you tell me what area this boiler is going in? I would hate to miss out on fixing another bad Weil McLain installation.

JProbber

Near boiler piping

This beauty is in southern Westchester County, NY.

Charlie from wmass

I did a repair in White Plains back

in the winter of 2010. It was a 680 miss installed where a 480 would have worked fine. After a bit of work we ended up with a down fired 580. Why is there a boiler feed pump?

JProbber

It's a condensate pump.....

..which I guess is the older-fashioned way of returning water.......

Rod

Condensate Pump

The question is whether you really need a condensate pump. Quite often you will find a pump installed when actually the system doesn't really need one. Without the  pump, things are a lot simpler/reliable and you save on electricity. The first thing to determine is whether you have an adequate  "A" dimension ( measurement from the boiler water line to lowest steam carrying pipe (the end of the dry return) - Page 24 TLAOSH)

- Rod

JProbber

Gotcha

Thanks Rod....