Steam Boiler Maintenance

impossible

Just moved into a house that has a steam boiler that was installed in 2009. Started a thread over at another forum and was recommended that I join heatinghelp.com because there were more experts over here that could help so thanks for having me.

At any rate, I've received a ton of information over at DIY CHAT but still have a few questions.

I've been flushing the boiler and noticed that 2 of the 4 valves were clean after draining 2 quarts. But the other two valves are still dirty after 1.5 gallons flushed (no more sediment, just deep brown water)

1) The two valves that are clean are valve1 and valve 4. valve 4 is in the read of the unit.
Valve 2 and 3 are still very dirty. Should I keep draining even after 1.5-2 gallons flushed?

2) How should I replenish the water? I have been opening the blue valve which raises the water int eh sight glass but I also have a programmable feed. Do I ever have to worry about pushing the "feed" button?

Cheers

JUGHNE

How about some pictures from farther back that includes the upper piping at the ceiling and down to the floor? From 3 or 4 angles so we can see how everything is put together.

Also after you add fresh water you should fire the boiler to steaming to remove oxygen introduced by the new water. Maybe someone mentioned that on the other forum?

impossible

Yes, someone stressed to run the boiler after refilling to burn off the oxygen. Just flushed again so sight glass is currently at 25%. Hope these pics are better, have a shelving unit in the way. Would like to know the best way to add water to my system. Thanks

JUGHNE

We seldom see pictures here posted by a home owner that include some proper installs, including:
both steam risers used
2 risers connected into a drop header
full port skimming port on the side of boiler
Can't tell about riser/header sizing but so far it looks indicative of an installer who read the book.

You must have one counterflow steam main on the left and another parallel flow? steam main on the right.

On the back side of the boiler is there a return coming out of the floor? Are there any other return pipes at the floor level coming from the system?

The blue valve on the copper water line appears to be the by-pass for the auto filler. That would be for manual fill only....usually off. Is there an indication at the sight glass for the cold boiler water level. Just fill to that point.

Your low water cut off probably has a test button that should shut down the fire. Important to assure that it does. Does the VXT box have a digital read out of gallons added. That should be monitored by you as you must have an underfloor wet return which are suspect to leaking and requiring fresh water to be added by the auto fill valve......continual adding of water is very bad as you probably know.

Clean water, brown water will bring up some opinions here.
I guess IMO I would fill to the proper level and fire up and see what water looks like after a few days of operation........TEST the LWCO , monitor the gallons added if any, watch the water line in the sight for bouncing and foaming...Please let us know back.

SWEI

Looking at the drains and detail in the return piping and Hartford loop, I suspected it might actually be piped right. Consider yourself blessed given the recent install date.

Jamie Hall

I wouldn't worry about water which is brown, but not particularly gunky. Gunky is not good... brown is not a problem. Although others may differ...

Your feeder does have a gallon meter on it -- which is excellent. Good install! My procedure for keeping things clean or at least more or less so is to drain about a gallon out of the boiler perhaps twice a month; I have a float type LWCO, and use its drain for that. But... I set the water level before I start with a clothespin on the sight glass and shut off the boiler before I start. The I use the manual feed valve when I'm done to bring the water back to the clothespin, then turn the boiler back on. That way, the automatic feeder -- and its meter -- record only the water which is actually lost as the boiler runs. Which is very little indeed, but is useful to know.

JUGHNE

Where are you located and do you know who did the 2009 install? If you follow this site you will realize there are a lot of steam boiler homeowners looking for someone to fix whatever mess they might have paid someone to cobble into place for them.

That installer could run an ad on this site and probably get good referrals just based on your system install (as far as we can see at this point anyway.)

impossible

The boiler is located in Monmouth Co, NJ. Will put a call into the installer this week.

I did not inspect the LWCO closely but will look for a button to shut down the fire. The auto feed has an screen with number "124" It has not changed in the last week but will keep my eye on it. The sight moves a little bit when the boiler is on and gets a little dirty but it does not foam and the water does not bounce a lot.

As far as replenishing the water goes... after the first few drains, I opened the blue copper line valve to replenish and noticed the water in the sight glass increased. After the last drain of about a gallon, I did not replenish and the water in the sight glass dropped to about 33%. Should I leave it be and trust the system to refill automatically?

Thanks JUGHNE, I will try to answer your questions...

Dave0176

Nicely piped steam boiler. As was mentioned you don't normally see them done in this fashion unless the installer is a usual frequent of this forum lol.

Dave0176

Actually I take that back, he did pipe the counterflow main wrong, he should've piped the riser into the top of the main on a bullhead tee, outside of that the rest is good.

KC_Jones

You will get a lot of mixed feelings on the auto feeder, but this is my take on it. It should be viewed as an emergency back up device and not a "convenience" device. You should be in the habit of checking the boiler at least once a week and monitor the water level yourself. This way if water is needed you can use the feed button on the feeder and track the water usage AND make sure that fresh water is boiled right away. I would keep an eye on your water usage this winter if that feeder is reading 124 gallons and the boiler was installed in 2009 that works out to about 25 gallons a year which would be excessive water usage...actually massively excessive water usage. Don't know for sure where the counter started or what the previous owner did so it's just a guess, so it would be good for you to monitor this year. You shouldn't use more than about 2-4 gallons per year in a boiler that size. If you see excessive usage it's indicative of a leak (steam or water) somewhere and should be addressed as soon as possible. Welcome to the forum!

KC_Jones

Dave0176 said:

Nicely piped steam boiler. As was mentioned you don't normally see them done in this fashion unless the installer is a usual frequent of this forum lol.

Hmmm Weil Mclain boiler installed very well with a drop header and it isn't Dave...interesting.

JUGHNE

Dave, I noticed that also. But with the drip there and drop header used I wonder what would be gained by the book design? There are so many pipe jobs that are so bad and this looked almost so good I just didn't want to comment .

If I recall correctly, recently there have been a lot of HO in NJ looking for boiler help??

Impossible, I guess I would fill the boiler to correct level manually, after it is cold and all condensate water has returned to the boiler. Then watch the gallon readout for increase as time goes by. (Nice garter shots BTW )

impossible

So I contacted the installer and turns out he is a member here... No wonder you like his work. Great guy, highly recommend Shane A Foster if you are looking for work in central NJ.
Address: 249 Broadway, Keyport, NJ 07735
Phone:(732) 264-5811

He was very helpful and seemed very knowledgable.