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Boiler possibly oversized?

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Comments

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 16,231
    Hatterasguy said:

    A little different scenario as compared to your wand with street pressure...........don't you think?

    140F water from wand under street pressure.

    A lot different than water under no pressure just sitting in the boiler.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Canucker
    Canucker Member Posts: 722
    edited February 2016
    Hatterasguy said:

    Insufficient, IMHO, to make much of a difference regarding the surface oils. Furthermore, the chances of precisely and accurately reaching all of the huge cast iron expanse between each of the sections is just about nil.

    Now, if you dismantle the boiler and blast away directly on each section.........and then reassemble it............now, you might have something worthwhile. :)

    In my experience you and @ChrisJ are both right. If you can pressure wash the surface with hot water you will get the bulk of the oils off, but there will still be a very slight residue of oil left on the surface, be it glass or metal. The only way to remove this is to boil a solvent(acetone seems to be the most effective, methanol, not so much) and draining it from the system. This will ensure that the remaining oils are removed completely. Whether you need to be that oil free for a steam system to function properly, I will leave that to people more knowledgeable than myself, but in my line of work, our vessels have to be tested to prove they are oil and contaminate free. This is part of the procedure we follow to ensure that. (And no, boiling water will not remove the oil residue in our systems to an acceptable level, it's still on the surfaces. Only the acetone takes the last of it off)

    You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick two
  • nicholas bonham-carter
    nicholas bonham-carter Member Posts: 8,578
    Unfortunately, the acetone will also dissolve the rubber gaskets which many boilers now use to seal one section to another.
    If I were putting in a replacement boiler, I would certainly add some auto-skimming piping. Possibly, mounting the LWCO, and sight glass on a larger diameter surge column, so that when the LWCO is blown down, the contents of the surge column, with the oils trapped at the top, are all dumped in the bucket.--NBC
  • Canucker
    Canucker Member Posts: 722


    Now, if he could get a true pressure washer nozzle in there...........and control it..................

    I can assure you even that would leave oil residue. That said, the amount left behind would be miniscule and most likely not be an issue with the boiler operation. I'm not an expert in steam boiler operation, by any means, but I highly doubt the vast majority of residential and commercial boilers need to approach the cleanliness of the vessels I use for proper operation.
    You can have it good, fast or cheap. Pick two
  • SKR918
    SKR918 Member Posts: 18
    OP here again; just wanted to thank all of you for you help.

    The company sent out a supervisor, he carefully checked all of the radiators, and it turns out that my hunch was right, the boiler was oversized. They replaced it with a smaller one. And, I had them remove the auto-feeder; it was causing too many problems with overfilling.
    I still have some water hammer, but I'm hoping that a few skims will take care of this. This site is awesome, thanks for the advice!

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