New Steam Boiler Water not getting clean

joelm

I installed a new burnham pin3 steam boiler, all new piping at boiler, to older supplies and returns, all black steel, NO copper, original radiators on first floor, my issue is that i can not get the water quality beyond the color of a dark oily "tea", after 40 plus labor hours of steaming, skimming, draining, the boiler and return piping,  i took a sample of the water and tried boiling it on the stove to check it, and sure enough, climbing up the sides of the pot, making wet steam, because of this also , it is condensating down the steam main, and not reaching the outer radiation. I tried a bottle of surgemaster, but didn't do much good, i even had the burnham rep out twice, he checked all the piping and the edr, and everything looks good, he said "not to use any chemical at all, it will damage the boiler" , just keep cleaning the system with water, homeowner getting frustrated as the outer radiators only heat halfway now, I never seen this much oil and dirt in a system,   Any suggestions?

crash2009

Steam the returns

You probably know more about these things than I do.  All I know is that I adopted a very dirty system a couple years ago.  It took some time to get clean.  As I remember, wasteing (steaming) the returns helped to make the most progress for me. 



Even though mine was dirty, somehow it still managed to heat all the rads.  Do you think there might be something else going on?  How well are the mains insulated, vented, and pitched?





 

gerry gill

hopefully you left a way

to steam clean the returns like Crash says..that works well, followed by a garden hose flush if you can do it..also i've found that taking the plug out of the return connection thats not used and inserting a nipple that prtudes past the jacket, i can go into the boiler with mu 'wand' which is a copper pipe with an elbow on the end , and i connect it up to the water heater drain and flush out the boiler by washing its insides and rotating the wand in circles.

crash2009

Magic Wand

Ah Hah!  Use the "Magic Wand".  So that's how you get the dam thing in there.

Abracadabra

magic wand

magic wand! I've got one too!  Mine's 1/2" with an street el that's capped and I've drilled the cap with 4 1/4" holes so the water shoots out with some velocity.







great minds! :-)

joelm

re

Mains are pitched perfectly, insulated, and not clogged, i even broke a union at the dry return, and blasted hot water back to boiler, clean. i also tried blasting hot water from the wh, into the t+p tap, while draining bottom with no success, didnt try the wand thing, but sounds like a good idea, anyone ever tried vinegar?

acl10

Try snaking them out

Try snaking them out with a 50 foot snake. I snked out my returns then flushed them out and had great results. There were blocks in the old pipes.