Is this pressuretrol setting incorrect?

cchhat01

Hi All,



On our new Burnham Independence IN5 140K BTU boiler, the pressuretrol is set to 5PSI (MAIN) and 1.5PSI (DIFF). This install is only a 1.5 months old. This is a L404F1367 Pressuretrol. I am attaching a picture.



The boiler feeds about 8-9 active radiators and we just switched out the air vents on most of the radiators to Maid-o-Mist (sized according to the vicinity and "coldness" of the room). The boiler also supplies baseboard heating to the basement using a water pump for "free" heating in the basement whenever the heat runs for the house (1st and 2nd floor).



Everything heats up but I think that the pressuretrol settings might be off and the plumbers who installed are telling me to read the manual. Maybe they left the pressuretrol setting to the default values?



The attached pressuregauge shows the pressure as high as 5PSI while the boiler operates from a cold start, but doesn't go beyond that.



Here's a pic of the current setting and the model number is seen through right inner wall of the pressuretrol.



Thanks for the help.

cchhat01

Jamie Hall

I do wish

that people wouldn't do that.



The short answer is no, it isn't correct.  It's easy to fix, though.  Reset the "main" to 2 (psi) (it would be nice to go lower, but pressuretrols are a little flaky low down) and the differential to 1.



You will be happier.  So will your boiler.

cchhat01

Just curious...

What will be different if I reduce those two settings to your recommended values of 2PSI and 1PSI for MAIN and DIFF, respectively.

I am just trying to educate myself so that I can properly take care of the new boiler. I generally tend to flush out the sediment water on a monthly basis. Our old boiler was so bad that we didn't know what the pressuretrol settings were so I didn't bother learning anything about it.



Thank you in advance,

cchhat01

Mark N

Pressutrol setting

Look at page 34 of the installation manual. Set the main to 1 and the diff to 0.5.

nicholas bonham-carter

High pressure

You only need a few ounces to get steam into the radiators, but you must have good main (not rad ) venting. Use capacious vents on the mains, and Hoffman 40's on the radiators for the most even distribution. Any radiators which lag can have a larger vent after you have been able to see the results of the new main vents.--NBC

Jamie Hall

I would have used

Mark N's numbers, but... it is my experience that pressuretrols are a little flaky at those settings.  You might get away with it if you are very careful not to disconnect the linkages when setting it down.  Might not, too.

Mark N

Settings

I have a Burnham IN-4 and have the pressuretrol set as recommended and it cuts out at 1 psi and cuts back in at 6 oz.