Home Boiler Question :

MooseOnaHill

Hello Everyone,
I woke this morning to no heat in my house. I ran to the boiler to do a quick visual inspection and saw no immediate issues. The pilot was on, thermostats working and calling for heat. After about 30 minutes the boiler suddenly kicked on with temps gradually increasing to normal set points.
I'm currently renovating my basement, my boiler/laundry room is isolated from the basement and I had the door shut these last few days.... Did air pressure or lack of air flow contribute to this? I know air is a important part of the combustion phase but I was also wondering if I had a gradual problem on my hands. -Thanks in advance -

Empire_2

It would be wise to have the system checked by certified technician?. If for nothing else, to make sure it safe and no damage done.....


Mike T.

MooseOnaHill

I'm certainly on board with that. It's been running fine ever since, however. It's Maintaining pressure and temp as it normally would. I think the room was under negative pressure but trust me, I have the phone real close.

lchmb

What kind of system? Does it have a zone control and that's how you knew it was calling for heat?

MooseOnaHill

Yes it zone controlled. The house is steam and there was an extention put on the house that's has two radiators-which are hot water rads. So it's a steam-hot water combo.

Gordy

If the spill switch tripped due to flue gas spillage it would not reset itself. In other words you would have had to reset the spill switch for the boiler to start working again. From your discription it started working on its own.

MooseOnaHill

That's correct, I didn't make any adjusmtents.
I opened the laundry room door and 20-30 min later the boiler came on. And it's been fine since.
The pilot light remains on at all times and nothing jumped out at me suggesting there was external issues. It's a Weil McLain boiler.

Fred

Make sure the pigtail,the looped pipe that the Pressuretrol is mounted on, is not clogged. Take the Pressuretrol off and see if you can blow through the Pigtail. If not, take the pigtail off and unclog it. A lot of times those pitails will clog and there will be pressure held at the Pressuretrol diaphram. That will keep the boiler from firing. Eventually, that trapped pressure will escape and the boiler will fire again, on a call for heat.

Paul48

While everything is working...take the time to learn about the boiler , and what can cause the boiler to not fire. Half an hour was enough time, if you knew what you were doing, as a troubleshooter. Nobody's born with the knowledge.

MooseOnaHill

Thanks guys...Fred, I was looking at the history of the service calls on the boiler ( this is my first year with it) and "cleaning pig tails" was logged a few times. I will certainly look into this, thanks.

Valid points, Paul. I routinely check the boiler, write down patterns, flush etc. I'll report back when or if I find the cause of the random issue. I'm a building super in the city so I'll need to fine tune boiler knowledge on a smaller scale. Thanks guys!