My steam system is throwing a temper tantrum right now

tlhaas

Hello all! I purchased my home (built circa 1875) a few weeks ago and I've been reading "We Got Steam Heat!" in my spare time to familiarize myself with steam systems and all the noises they make.

The one-pipe system in my house has been working just swell for the last 2 weeks, but this morning I woke up to louder-than-normal hissing and water hammer. A few hours later one of the radiators starting pissing water out of the rad vent. Then another one started. Then two more. Then we noticed that they all seem be leaking from the radiator supply valve as well. (Apparently one of the radiators is cracked too. I'm not sure if that's relevant, but it's shut off now.)

Additionally, I found out one of the main vents in the basement is leaking steadily as well. I'm assuming there should be a second main vent since I have two pipes coming off the boiler header, but I can't find the other one so I'm guessing it's in the crawl space. See attached for the leaking main vent and the rusty old vent I found on the floor next to it the other day.

The original pissing rad vent has been going steady for about two hours now and shows no signs of stopping.

I've turned the thermostat down to decrease the frequency and duration of the boiler firing.

I also opened the valves on the bottom of the boiler to remove the grungy water, but they ran clear after 15 seconds so I stopped. The boiler was not running at the time.

It seems like my steam pipes are full of water, but I don't know why.

Please send help.

JStar

The system is probably over filled. Keep draining the boiler until you can see the water level in the sight glass (about 1/2 to 3/4 full).

tlhaas

10-4. I'll go drain it now and see what happens.

I have an auto-feeder installed. Is there a reason the boiler over-fill even with that installed?

Fred

Areb you sure the auto water feeder is workinglike it should? The flow valve in those things can leak or stick open and aloow water to continue to feed into the boiler.There should be a shut-off on the water pipe that is attached to the auto feeder. Shut that off and watch the boiler water level for a day and see if the water level rises again. A lot of steamers who have auto water feeders leave them shut off when we are at home and only use them if we plan to be away from home for several days (assuming they are working properly). A lot of us don't even have auto water feeders. We just monitor the Boiler water level and add a little when needed which should be rarely (maybe a quart over a month period (each system is a little different though) but it shouldn't require much make up water.
Also, check the Pressuretrol to make sure it is working properly and that the pigtail (looped pipe under the Pressuretrol) is not plugged with gunk. Too much pressure can push water out into the system as well.

BobC

Auto feeders can be a PITA, when they go awry, they encourage people to ignore their boilers. You would be better off valving it off unless your not going to be home for a few days - make sure the LWCO is working first.

Boilers should be inspected at least twice a week to be sure everything is ok. If you have a float type low water cutoff (LWCO) it should be blown down at least a couple of times a month to make sure it's clean and also to make sure the boiler shuts off when the water level gets to the bottom of the sight glass.

Bob

tlhaas

Gents,

Thank you so much for your help. I drained off maybe 80 or so gallons and the sight glass FINALLY dropped to the proper level (it was so full it started leaking).

Everything that was leaking seems to have stopped and all appears normal.

I'm going to inspect the auto-feeder and Pressuretrol with my pops (he's a plumbing and heating contractor) and see what the deal is with it everything. He's the guy that got me the books that lead me to this site.

Side question: Does that main vent I posted a picture of look proper? I found the old rusty big guy next to it and figured it was replaced with the smaller one that's on there now, but I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not. The house was previously owned by handy-man, so I've discovered many... shall we say interesting... construction and repair decisions. Just wondering if this is one of them.

KC_Jones

Did you turn off the water feed? The water is coming in from your feeder for sure. If you don't stop the flow it's going to happen again. You may have a bad feeder or bad valve somewhere. Make sure the main shutoff on the water feed line is off.

Fred

The vent on the floor is a Hoffman #75 and the one that's on now is a Gorton #1. They are both good vents but you definitely don't have enough venting for the steam to move down the Mains as quickly as it hould. The Steam principal is "Vent the Mains fast and the radiators slowly"
If you have the headroom you should use gorton #2's (the Hoffmans aare good vents but it takes about 2 for eevery Gorton #2 capacity wise) If you give us the length of the Main (each if there is more than one) and the diameter of the pipe (inside diameter or if you can't figure that out, give us the outside diameter) we can advise you on how many vents you should have. Multipe vents can be mounted on an antler made of 1/2 or 3/4 inch elbows and nipples and tee's.

BobC

do you heat your domestic hot water with a tankless coil on this steam boiler? If you do that coil could have a pinhole in it and that could overfill the boiler as well.

Turn off the feed to the LWCO and monitor the level of water in the sight glass, if it starts to creep up a tankless coil could be the culprit.

Bob

tlhaas

KC_Jones said:

Did you turn off the water feed? The water is coming in from your feeder for sure. If you don't stop the flow it's going to happen again. You may have a bad feeder or bad valve somewhere. Make sure the main shutoff on the water feed line is off.

My pops came over and we ended removing the auto-feeder and installing a valve. Whoever piped it before didn't do it properly so there was no by-pass, so that was the only way to rule it out. We tore it down and it looked okay.

BobC said:

do you heat your domestic hot water with a tankless coil on this steam boiler? If you do that coil could have a pinhole in it and that could overfill the boiler as well.

Turn off the feed to the LWCO and monitor the level of water in the sight glass, if it starts to creep up a tankless coil could be the culprit.

Bob

This is our prevailing theory right now. We removed the auto-feeder, but the boiler overfilled again within 20 minutes. We drained it off, shut off the domestic hot water line, and after an hour the sight glass level didn't move. I left the domestic hot water off overnight and the sight glass level seemed move up a hair (< 0.125"), but I suspect that's normal fluctuation.

Since the house already has a water heater installed (decommissioned but piped in), we're going to remove the coil, replace it with a block-off plate, and fire up the old water heater.

Fred said:

The vent on the floor is a Hoffman #75 and the one that's on now is a Gorton #1. They are both good vents but you definitely don't have enough venting for the steam to move down the Mains as quickly as it hould. The Steam principal is "Vent the Mains fast and the radiators slowly"
If you have the headroom you should use gorton #2's (the Hoffmans aare good vents but it takes about 2 for eevery Gorton #2 capacity wise) If you give us the length of the Main (each if there is more than one) and the diameter of the pipe (inside diameter or if you can't figure that out, give us the outside diameter) we can advise you on how many vents you should have. Multipe vents can be mounted on an antler made of 1/2 or 3/4 inch elbows and nipples and tee's.

Thanks! I'll take some measurements and post up in a new thread. Measuring the second main might be tough. It's in a blocked off crawl space that only a toddler could fit in.

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Thanks again to everybody that helped out in this thread. I really appreciate it.

Fred

As BobC suspected, it appears to be the HW Coil. Sounds like you're in luck.