Boiler additive

Christian Garibaldi

Hello again, I had a post up earlier today regarding my condensate drain freezing up and leaking water out of one of my radiators. Which brings me to my next question that I just want to make sure I dont make any mistakes. Since I bought my building over a year ago, the water level in my steam boiler sight glass has been at the proper level, but always had a neon green/ yellow color to it. When the system is running it turns a muddy rust colored brown and drops. But when the system is off and cools down and settles after a few days, I assume the sediment settles and the water clears back up and returns to its green yellow color. It almost looks like anti-freeze.



my question arose after todays incident where I probably dumped a fair amount of water out of the system. i had gone to the boiler and noticed the water level was almost at the bottom of the sight glass after the backup, so I opened the manual valve up next to the water feeder connected to the safe guard low water cutoff unit that has a water feed line to fill the boiler running through it and I brought the level back up as not to risk running the boiler with too low of a level in the chest. Obviously it added fresh tap water and diluted the system. Should I be re-adding any sort of agent or inhibitor back into the system, assuming that was what was in there from the start and gave the water that greenish color? If so, is there any particular brand or additive that any of you would recommend? Also, is there any way to test the LWCO and water feeder system? Im not that familiar with when it would actually kick on, and thought that perhaps it would or should have today when I saw the water level about a 1/4 of and inch above the lower portion of the sight glass, which appeared to be about 6 inches or so below the marked water level line on the boiler. I just want to make sure its working properly. If I push the red test or reset button on the water feeder, it kicks on and allows water to fill the boiler, just wondering if there is potentially an issue with the sensor on the boilere perhaps? that is...if it would have kicked on when the level got that low as it had today.



Thank you!

cn30

additive and lwco

The additive could be a PurePro product.  I tried it on the advice of a boiler tech and it does turn the water green. As for the lwco, I had a similar issue of the boiler not cutting out on low water and thought it was a probe malfunction (see 12/26/12 thread if you're interested). I ultimately had the probe replaced and the new one--different company--did the same thing. The consensus was that my boiler water must be dirty and thus foaming, fooling the probe. It always did work from the off position (not letting the boiler start on low water), so it appears it needs calm water to work right. And low-pressure systems throw up a lot of water even clean, going by a video ChrisJ posted.



Anyway, the new probe--Cycle Guard by Hydrolevel--is actually designed to interrupt burn cycles for a minute and then restart, catching a low-water situation, so they're at least aware of the issue. I'm guessing your probe and mine would eventually have cut out before the boiler ran dry, but it does not induce confidence if you can't see it work. Also, if yours runs a water feeder, it's not replacing water in a timely way.

nicholas bonham-carter

Chemicals in the water

Unless you have problem water from a well with high chlorides, I would say you are better off without chemicals of any kind. The green color may indicate some sort of anti-freeze, which would make bad and expensive steam.--NBC

Christian Garibaldi

Thank you

for the response guys. Yes, it had the appearance of automotive type antifreeze, which I jsut figured was some sort of additive that was put in the boiler to prevent corrosion or modify the characteristics of the water to a degree. Never gave it much thought, but I could see how it could affect the steam I suppose, also, its been getting diluted down as I lose water, or clean the taps on the system etc and refill.



As for the LWCO, I started worrying and figured what the heck, let me test the whole system. SO while it was deep into a heating cycle and running at full steam (no pun intended) I opened the LWCO and did a number of blow downs. I would get an initial large burst of muddy water, then it would slow, Id close and repeat. After about 3 gallons, I rapped on the globe of the float chamber and suddenly, click, the boiler quit. I closed the LWCO and after about 30 second, it fired back up. From then on, any subsequent valve opening to flush it would kill the boiler. I guess the float was a little sticky, but seems to be OK. Ill fully admit, I havent blown the LWCO down on a regular basis, but then again, I rarely run the heat in this place as well. I will be sure to flush it at least once every week or so going forward. Perhaps even remove it come the spring and open it to clean it out on a bench. Are there any threads up here that cover any potential hiccups or procedures for doing so up here?





OK, so that seems to be working which makes me feel better. Then I went over to test the water feeder. I opened the spigot at the front of the boiler and let it fly. The level got to the very bottom of the sight glass, then the low water light on the feeder assembly on the side of the boiler went on, the boiler kicked off, then about a minute or so later, the valve for the automatic water feeder kicked on and filled the level back up halfway up the sight glass and then the monster fired back up. So it looks like all is working as expected at the present moment.



Thank you guys for the advice, its a huge help!

nicholas bonham-carter

Unusual piping

Post some more pictures of your radiator as it seems to have some unusual piping.

The additive was probably put in to compensate for some problem, but as you know, there is no such thing as a mechanic in a can!

Maybe we will see something which can easily be rectified, so the green stuff is not needed--NBC