wild water flucuations/low water cutoff/water feeder

jef

i  had a eg 75 well mclain installed 4wks ago  -after reading wall info i dont think it was skimmed?

they replaced cast iron with copper at top of boiler? 

i am having water in sight glass go from top to bottom needing water after 20mins or so

i have checked all 23 raditor vents cannot find where water/steam is going(vents close with steam hit)

sometimes i find water in 4th , 3rd , 2nd floor raditors vents for a total of 2-3 radiators -not always same radiators   

system is using about 50gallons of water for a total run of about 6-8hrs(this was occuring with old boiler but old boiler had 3 pin holes in the cast iron sections i could see the steam leaving now i dont know where it is going)

i have a vxt -24 water feeder -feed set LWCO - feed delay 2 min

once i observed the boiler 6 gallons from feeder

 usally it seems to take gallon or two from feeder

hx for help

nicholas bonham-carter

Where is the extra water?

All that extra water must be going somewhere--up the chimney, stacking in the returns.

Does the water ever come back, as it might do with sluggish returns?

The installation manual for your boiler probably has specific warnings about using copper instead of iron pipe for the supply piping. Was the general piping layout/pipe-sizes part followed at least? Post some pictures of the installation here for us to comment on.

If you are losing water at such a rate, then there could be a leak in the returns, or in the boiler itself, so an investigation would be in order before your new boiler self destructs with all that excess oxygen-laden fresh water. If your wet returns are buried, then there could be a hidden leak. Over-filling the boiler, while switched off will show in a few hours any leak inside.

Find that leak ASAP.--NBC

Jamie Hall

Let's see now...

50 gallons of water would take some 374,000 BTU to boil off.  3 gallons or so of oil, if that's what you are firing with.  It also represents about 40,000 cubic feet of steam.  And it is a goodly chunk of all the steam which you are producing, it is steam or dry return condensate which is leaking.  This is not good.



Somewhere you have a major leak.  As nbc says, you need to find it before the boiler self-destructs -- if it hasn't already (there are some ways to mis-assemble WM's which can allow major leaks, and which are instant catastrophe for the boiler, but most of those allow steam or water to get into the firing chamber or flue passages, and you should be able to see that as steam out the chimney).



The water in the radiators may or may not be part of the problem -- it may also indicate very wet steam; you mention of the near boiler piping being copper makes me a bit concerned.  Pictures, please? 

gerry gill

yes, post pictures..

the fact they installed a new boiler with a copper header is cause for concern..if they did that, would they have actually cleaned the boiler? please show us pictures. it does sound like dirty water tho from your description..