Lwco flush issues

Caz122

I think I drained too much water when attempting to fush the LWCO on a burnham in4 boiler. I assume that all I need to do is get water back into the system but can't figure out how...



Any thoughts?

ColoradoDave

Not sure what a Burnham in4 is, however....

1. Check your boiler pressure.... assuming it's a standard hydronic boiler in a residential installation, should be between 10-15 (12 psi is average, but some boiler guages are of such a scale that it's hard to pin point 12  sometimes).

2. If pressure is 0 or on the peg, check your fill valve and make sure you don't have it turned off... if there's a quick fill lever, sometimes giving it a shot to get it started is enough.  Make sure you know where your shutoff valve is for the fill BEFORE you do that.  If the fill valve has been idle long enough it may stick.

3. If your pressure is between 10 - 15 psi, check your air elimination, Air vent or Sprirovent.... if it's an air vent, make sure the cap is unscrewed at least half a turn to vent the air out.

Question?  Why are you trying to flush your LWCO?  It should be in the flow if it's installed correctly and therefore shouldn't collect too much sediment or debris.

ColoradoDave

Spirovent

if your air elimation is a spirovent or the honeywell spirovent, and it has a buildup of white or green scale on it, brushing it with CLR or lime-away can clear the passage sometimes WITHOUT having to remove the top.

Caz122

Forgive my ignorance

Burnham Independence4 is my best guess at the model number for the boiler in question. Based on what I can find, it appears to have a float type LWCO; but all of this is very new to me having lived in apartments my whole life.



The pressure is at 0 as you noted. I figured that there is a lever that I need to open to get the water in, but I just don't know enough to know where it is. Any thoughts/guidance would be very much appreciated.



And as to the question of why I did this at all - we had a plumber in to look at the whole system recently and he indicated that it would be good routine maintenance to do this every couple of weeks. Of course, not the way that I have gone about it....

JStar

RE

You have a steam boiler. It is very wise to flush the LWCO on a regular basis. To refill the boiler, you'll be looking for the water feed. Look for a small copper line with some type of valve on it. Either a long handled ball valve, or round handled gate valve. Look for any small copper being tied into a larger pipe on the boiler. That's you're best bet. Then open the valve and fill the boiler very slowly.

Caz122

Success!!

That was exactly what I needed to know. Found the fill valve no problem, added the water slowly and the boiler kicked on before I stepped away. Thanks so much for your help, saved me an emergency service call and much grief from the family.

JStar

RE

You are welcome. We hate those kinds of service calls anyway!

ChrisJ

IN4

Make sure you filled just about 3/4 of the way up the sight glass on a IN4. 



When you flush the LWCO be sure to have the burner firing when you do it.  Crack the valve wide open until the burner shuts down.  Once the burner shuts down and confirms the LWCO works immediately close the valve quickly and crack it back wide open again for a second and then closed again.  This makes sure you flush all of the crud out of it as well as confirms its doing its job.



Also remember to ALWAYS run the boiler and produce steam for 15 to 20 minutes after adding fresh water to the system.