Unintended lesson in the "B" dimension

DuggieFresh5

I had an interesting experience tonight. I learned two things:

1) I do not have a good enough ear to judge how much water is coming in when manually filling my boiler
and
2) Just because you think you are filling your boiler with water, doesn't mean you aren't actually filling your return piping (and header) with water.

So I try to be a good boiler owner and check water level, keep the water clean, and just pay attention to how my system is running in general. My system was badly neglected by the last homeowner and I've struggled some with rusty water. I thought I was more or less on top of it, but my sight glass became useless again in the course of the current heating season. I figure I'll do as thorough of a flush as I can manage and I try to do it by filling while I'm draining from the bottom sight glass valve.

Turns out I thought I was draining at least as fast as I was filling, but I was way off. My main and return vents started gurgling and I thought it was because I was drawing down water and probably just effecting the pressure in the system in some benign fashion. Then my main vent started leaking water! Long story short, I drained probably 10+ gallons of water and boy does it ever look clean! I think I must have broke some funk loose in the mud leg based on the "chunks" of rust-laden water I saw blowing through in spurts. Hopefully this will prove effective in keeping the site glass clear and the condensate flowing smoothly.

Once I figured out what I had done with the water, I chuckled and thought i would share the experience.

P.S. I'm keeping an eye on the glass, I've already noticed some slow to return water bumping up the level. Looks like I've got another 1/2 hour or so before the next cycle fires.

Snowmelt

Did you over fill your system without realizing it.

SWEI

Sounds like the static head of all that water might have been enough to clear the mud. Skim time?

DuggieFresh5

Sadly, during the first cycle, crud was making it's way back into the site glass, so yes, more cleaning is probably warranted.

It was purely accidental. I was draining from the site glass to try and remedy persistent buildup and filling faster than I was draining.

I was doing this while running the boiler hoping the active water would expedite the crud out of the system. Either there is just that much to clean out or my methodology is flawed.

Fred

I would say your methodology might be flawed