Smith G8's first skimming

BobC

This is a Smith G8-3 steam boiler with the Carlin EZ Gas firing at 112,000 BTU according to my clocking of the gas meter. I had the installer move my vaporstat (12 oz cutout) from the old boiler onto the new one so now I have a brand new pressuretrol sitting on the shelf.



The boiler was commissioned Friday 10-5-12 and I've run it a few times since then; it was 34 here in the Boston area early this morning so we are getting close to heating season. There is about 1/2" of bounce and some crud on the surface of the water in the gauge glass so I decided to do my first skim on this boiler.



I kept the boiler at about 180F and very slowly fed water into it by cracking the fill valve, I was feeding at about 1 qt every 10 minutes or so. If you look closely you will see a very thin trickle of water coming out of that 1-1/4" valve. I got some black oily water out at first but after a couple of quarts it was just murky looking water. I pulled about 4 gallons of water from the boiler and I'll probably have to do it several more times to get rid of all the oil in the new piping as well as the boiler itself.



There is a low frequency rumbling at about one or two HZ that sounds like a combustion issue. I'll have the installer tweak the combustion setup and see what we get and what the final numbers are.



I'll finish insulating the near boiler piping this week.



Bob

Dave in QCA

Nice Install

Very nice install!  I am looking forward to my own skimming sometime soon.

Mark N

New Boiler

Congratulations on your new boiler. I remember reading a thread a few weeks about down firing the burner to better match how much radiation you have. How did you make out with that.

BobC

A bit large

When I started to look for bids i was surprised how few outfits wanted to install a steam boiler. It the end I was offered the IN4 by one contractor and the Smith / Carlin combo by the other, both boilers are rated about the same - 280,000 BTU. I know Weil McClain make smaller steamers but I'm not sure I trust their rubber nipples long term and I want this boiler to last.



I've got about 215 of EDR connected and am going to add a little more in the kitchen at some point. The boiler is oversized but no where as much as the Burnham v75 (rated for 596 EDR). The carlin ez gas came with a factory supplied orifice for 105,000 BTU so I assume the gas manifold is adjusted just a bit over 3.5" WC (I clocked it at 112,000 BTU). At some point I might get a new orifice pipe and drill it a bit smaller but then I'll have to get someone with a combustion analyzer to set it up again so I'll probably keep it like this for this heating season. I remember reading not to downfire more than 10% because you begin to affect the efficiency of the boiler adversely so I'll have to investigate a bit more.



After the skimming I'm no longer seeing sheeting in the gauge glass so I've gotten a lot of the oil out of the system, I'll probably skim it once a week for a month to get the water where I want it. I bought a 1-1/4" threaded plug (you can see it laying on top of the boiler) for that skim valve just to be sure nobody ever tried to open that valve when the boiler was making steam. All of the new piping is now insulated, I've just got to do a half dozen fittings left to do now.



Bob

Mark N

New Boiler

I myself have a Burnham IN-4 that is quite well matched to my load. I have 260 sqft of rads and the IN-4 is rated at 271sqft. I did quite a bit of skimming after it was installed. I think Peerless has a steam boiler rated for around 230sqft EDR. Since the new boiler is so much smaller that your old one are you able to run without cycling on pressure?

BobC

It cycles on pressure

when it hits 12 oz, but not as much as the Burnham v75 did. I knew it was going to be a bit oversized going in so no surprises there.



I do some woodworking and was a bit leery about using an open flame thrower in the basement.



Bob

crash2009

The Smith G8

 is a wetbase boiler, and you can run either natural gas or oil.  Is that correct Bob?  if so, did this have any bearing on your decision to buy it?

BobC

Wet based boiler

The fact the Smith is a wet based boiler was a large part of my choice to go with it and the fact it can be run with either oil or gas was a plus - just in case.



now if Midco ever released a burner that was in this range I'd be willing to look at it because i think it would be a no brainer for this kind of boiler, it sure would be nice to be able to modulate down in BTU after getting the boiler up to steam. Alas I don't think they have ay intention to wander down to my area of the market.



maybe in the next life,



Bob

SWEI

Midco

The 500k version modulates down to 100k, which would still give you about a 3:1 turndown ratio.



PowerFlame X4M has been mentioned here a bit - quotes a 10:1 turndown.

ChrisJ

Scope?

Hey Bob, is that a 1960s Tektronix scope in the backround I see?





Nice install btw, I guess the V75 finally gave up?

BobC

good eye Chris

That is an old 545A that Ibought used in '75, it served me well for 15 years and has since been replaced with a Hitachi v212 and a Tek 2230; the 545 had a better trigger circuit than either of the newer scopes - those Tektronix engineers were absolute wizards. Early in my career I used to calibrate and repair those. I miss the 545A it used to do a great job of keeping the cellar warm in the winter. In the years i used that old scope i think I replaced 3 tubes (it had about 35 tubes in it), they were built like tanks. it's still in the cellar because i don't have the strength to haul it out of there and if I ever decide to build a big tube power amp that transformer will help hold one end of the chassis down real well.



The Burnham v75 was still working but the old oil tank gave me the willies, it developed a slight weep last winter (2 quarts in 2 months) so i decided that was that. I got through last year on 270 gallons of fuel, I didn't dare push any more fuel into it. That old v75 was only serviced once by an outside contractor, I did almost all the repairs myself but I did get it cleaned and tuned every year.



Bob

Rod

Smith G8

Bob- Congratulations on a very nice looking install! 

- Rod

Jean-David Beyer

Old Times...

When I was doing electronic design, I used a Tektronix 545 all the time. Once someone came up with a Hickock patent infringing copy that looked the same, except the plastic knobs did not look as well made. The trigger circuit was no good, even though it was an exact copy of the Tektronix one. What the Hickock engineers did not seem to know is that each of the Tektronix scopes were hand tuned to work. And Hickock did not do it.



After I retired, long after my electronic design days, I needed an oscilloscope with a delaying sweep. I went to a surplus place and they had both 535s and 545s for $100 each. I took a 535 because I did not want to mess with tuning the 545's distributed vertical amplifier. It had a minor problem that I had to fix and worked fine until the ventilation fan seized up. I do not know where to get a replacement. Tektronix no longer has any. I suppose any old fan would do if it is big enough and covers the hole at the back. But I have not gotten around to it.

BobC

Muffin fan

Your chance of finding one of those 8" fans is pretty slight.



When I had a Tek scope with a seized fan I used to just use a 100cfm muffin fan and it seemed to work fine - just make sure you keep that filter clean. It will run a little louder and a little warmer but I kept old scopes going for years with that fix back in the day.



I'm never going to use my old Tek again so if you really want it, I'll pull the fan off and make sure it still works and ship it to you for the cost of the postage. let me know if you want it.



Bob

ChrisJ

Scopes

Very nice!

I once had a Tek 5** but don't remember the number. If I remember correctly, it was a 66MHz scope and was half solid state.



I currently have a Tek 2215 and a..........now I can't remember the model but its the same age as the 2215 except its 100MHz and has a built in digital multimeter.



I don't plan on building an amplifier but I used to restore vintage amps a lot. Still have a Fisher KX-200 sitting behind me which is close to mint.





Sorry for hijacking the thread.

BobC

Thanks to all

for the complements, the oil tank just made it happen sooner than I expected.



Hey after all it's only money.



Bob