Dirty Boiler Water - consistent problem

hockeyman001

Recently purchased a new home. The boiler is a cast-iron Peerless TW-4 (the full model name label is smudged, so it's unclear if it's a JO-TW or JOT-TW), but it's from the mid 1980s. It supplies us with hot water and steam for heat.

Climate is the northeast US. The boiler was cleaned for the first time in a while when we bought the home. The maintenance records that the previous owner left us show pretty thorough maintenance up until about 5 years ago, then things get spotty at best.

The system has been left on at low temperatures throughout to facilitate the pipes not freezing during the period where the previous owners got the home ready for sale and listed it. They have periodically drained the water until it runs clean, and refilled supply water in the sight glass as needed.

After we had it cleaned initially, we have continued to periodically drain a small amount of the water approximately once a week (until it becomes clear after a few seconds), and occasionally add supply water to maintain the proper level.

Once heating season rolled around, we knew the system would be dirty, so after we ran the heat for the first time (steam heat, not hot water) we drained and got the expectedly muddy mess. The water in the sight glass also came up quite muddy and even a little oily during this time.

After that first need for heat, we went a while without needing it, so we returned to just periodically draining once a week, and the water continued being clean after a few seconds in "hot water mode."

Now, as we enter the more intensive part of the heating season, each and every time the heat system fires up, the water is extremely dirty, and does not come up clean without nearly draining the entire boiler (of course it is shut off when doing this). The initial discharge is solid brown, and it remains brownish gold pretty much for the entirety of this. It has now done this 3 consecutive days of heating season.

I'm wondering what the culprit is. Only one of the radiators has been problematic (it has a small leak at the joint, and has to be re-pitched since it has settled on the shims I dropped under it in the fall). Is this just a case of long overdue draining of the system that will continue and slowly get better over time? Or is it likely there is some sort of contaminating mud, rust, or oil getting into the return somewhere?

Thanks for any help. I'm new to this, and just trying to survive the winter before making improvements to the system in the offseason.

BobC

I suspect it's just decades of accumulated crud. When the weather permits I would drain and refill the boiler (make sure it's cold or just warn, not hot) several times. I would also consider washing it out with a magic wand -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1tw9rz-pUk

If you don't have a floor drain it's a PITA but doable with a few 5 gal buckets.

Then fire up the boiler and skim it to get rid of any contaminants on the surface of the water. Once the skim is done let the boiler steam for a while to drive off any oxygen in the water.

Bob

nicholas bonham-carter

Are any of the return pipes under the floor?--NBC

hockeyman001

The floor of the basement? As in are they dug through dirt? No. The house is a basement, 2 stories, and an attic. There are radiators on both stories and a ceiling radiator in the basement. Return piping runs obviously through floors as needed to get back to the boiler, and returns to the Hartford loop exposed in the boiler room, resting against the concrete foundation, but it never actually goes outside of it and comes back in, at least that I can observe (since part of the basement is finished).

The boiler is only this filthy when the steam heat runs up. Just did another quick draining till clear, but at least it's not taking as long as earlier in the week to clear up, though it still retains some of the golden discoloration after the initial muddy brown discharge.

Another thing I am noticing is small black particles in the sight glass, which would seem different from the rust or dirt causing the brown color. These are making it into the drain water as well, as I see them visibily when dumping the buckets I fill the murky discharge with into my basement toilet (I don't have the luxury of a floor drain unfortunately) against the white porcelain. Again, this has only been occuring during heating season...wasn't doing this during strictly hot water season. The drain water also generally has a chalky odor to it. Hot water in the home *seems* to be OK, though I haven't really tested it under scrutiny the past few days as it's mostly been for showering/washing hands. Is that something I should do? Fill a glass and check the hot tap water for impurities too?

Frank_the_Tank

Using a boiler washout wand will help to truly clean out your boiler. Just draining it leaves the really heavy sediment in the bottom of each boiler section. I made mine out of parts from Home Cheapo. Soldered copper fittings for the first time and it surprisingly didn't leak.

You'll have to do this a few times over a heating season, as your return lines are likely dirty as well and will continue to push sediment into the boiler. Your lack of a floor drain is problematic, but others on The Wall have been able to make due with some large buckets or bins.

I put Rhomar Hydro-Steam 9150 steam system cleaner in my boiler immediately after a boiler washout and the water was dirty again within a week, which tells me that my wet returns are still dirty. I'll be flushing my wet returns out at the end of the month from the end of steam main drop towards the boiler drain, which hopefully will finally leave me with boiler water that is mostly clean. I will be throwing in a Steamaster tablet to control pH and hopefully inhibit any further corrosion.

I would recommend tackling this during the heating season, as the only way a boiler cleaner makes its way through the system is by running the system. I used the Rhomar product as it specifically claims to have ingredients that go out with the steam into the rest of the system.

Insert standard disclaimer: don't crack your boiler by filling it with ice cold water if it's hot, don't flood your basement, etc.

Since you have a push nipple boiler, you can go pretty high with the water pH, like 10, and never have to worry about boiler corrosion again. Your wet return lines will continue to corrode, but not much one can do about that aside from re-piping in copper below the waterline.