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1940ish boiler

Jeff Perry_3
Jeff Perry_3 Member Posts: 102
in THE MAIN WALL
Started a boiler replacement, after waiting a week for asbestos removal. It's a 9 section National hot water boiler. We popped the sections and this is what the return passages looked like. They both looked like this. i wonder just how much flow there was really going on here.

Comments

  • nicholas bonham-carter
    nicholas bonham-carter Member Posts: 8,577
    Old boiler deposits

    How could that boiler have accumulated so much debris, even after 70+ years?

    Surely it's a closed system.--NBC
  • JStar
    JStar Member Posts: 2,752
    edited June 2013
    Mud

    ...because the maintenance tech comes in every year and flushes the system. Water is like a battery; it needs to be recharged every year, right?
  • Jeff Perry_3
    Jeff Perry_3 Member Posts: 102
    Yep

    it's a closed syste. And since the feed was tied into the bottom rear of the boiler it was also plugged solid. As was the drain. It was fun getting the system drained down, I'll tell you that.
  • Jeff Perry_3
    Jeff Perry_3 Member Posts: 102
    Tech?

    You're kidding, right? This is a frat house. I doubt this thing has been looked at once in the past 10 to 15 years. maybe. And since the fill and drain were also plugged solid we know that even if they were showing up they sure didn't drain anything.
  • Mark Eatherton
    Mark Eatherton Member Posts: 5,863
    My guess....

    This neglected red headed step child with freckle and a bad attitude boiler sat down in the boiler room for years, operating "maintenance free".



    The expansion tank became water logged, the relief valve did its thing every fire cycle, the make up valve did its thing every cool down cycle, and the boiler water ways lost...



    If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and whatever you do, don't go looking for trouble... (Maintenance departments credo/modus operandi)



    Did you happen to test if for combustion efficiency prior to taking it off line? I'm guessing it had a higher than normal stack temperature.



    Our jobs will never be in jeopardy...



    ME

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • Jeff Perry_3
    Jeff Perry_3 Member Posts: 102
    No test

    This boiler hasn't worked in a year. They went through this past winter by using the alcohol heating method. Drink more beer and you'll be fine. So I did not fire it. And to top it off there is a leak somewhere in the crawl that we need to find and see how bad it is before we consider the new boiler.



    Oh, getting up and going to work every day is such a "I wonder what will happen today to make things interesting" life.
This discussion has been closed.

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