No heat in two radiators This is only the tip of the ice burgh

DanSilvestriJr.

I received a call from a new customer and they said one of the second floor room radiator's was not getting hot. When I went down in the basement to survey the heating system I saw a recently changed out Peerless EC-05 boiler in poor shape piped to a one pipe steam distribution system even in worse shape. I have some pictures attached for your review. Being a wet head and not as fluent in steam I'd like to input my findings and comments and ask for yours as well. Someone before me had changed all of the radiator vents as well the two main vents. One main vent was spitting large amounts of very dirty water all over the basement floor. I had asked the customer if they at least once a week blow down the boiler and they said they were never instructed to do so by anyone. So we probably have a lot of dirt and sludge in the system. That being said the water level in the boiler rose slowly after shutting down the boiler to the point it rose above the sight glass. I believe I have severely plugged wet return lines and they need to be flushed. The radiator up stairs and the now a second radiator on the first floor below it was not getting hot. The radiator upstairs was panting when I removed the new air vent. The radiator on the first floor directly below it had a newly installed plugged vent. When I removed the vent with the boiler still producing steam (also noting sever water hammer in the system) water started spurting out of the radiator tapping. Noting both of these problems on the same riser I believe I have a trapped water pocket do to a sludge restriction at the base of the riser and I need to replace that section of pipe. The pitch on the riser back to the main was good plus it was leaking anyhow. Let me ask you about what you think about this next photo. Ignore the soil pipe repair below the 2" main! The steam is flowing from the right to the left. The 2" main has a slight pitched back to the boiler about 4 feet away. Note the 2"x1.5'x1.5" reducing tee. The 1.5" run is feeding our two problem radiators. The upward 1.5" bull is feeding the remaining radiators down stream. They are all operating ok and the main is pitched back to the wet return feeding the boiler. Is this reducing tee a proper piping technique? Will the water draining back to the boiler (opposing the steam direction) cause water hammer and capacity loss ?
Note the near boiler piping in the next two photo's.
On this boiler shouldn't we have two risers above the boiler. We do have more than 24" between the 2" header and the top of the boiler. Note the Hartfort loop. It is located 9" below the normal water level. I thought it should be about 2" below the normal water line. The equalizer is 1.5" but I have no clean outs to flush the wet returns. There is a low water cut off but with a programmable automatic water feeder. What is to prevent the feeder from flooding out the boiler. I'm already noting the water level in the boiler with it not running above the sight glass? Any insight you can give me regarding the remedial work I should recommend to my customer is appreciated. Thanks in advance. Dan Silvestri

Paul S_3

an air vent panting, water spurting out of a radiator and severe water hammer are indications of condensate not draining back to boiler. make sure all your radiators are pitched toward supply valve, make sure that all the supply valves are 100% open....sometimes they may appear to be open but are actually broken off inside the valve not allowing the condensate to drain properly, if that auto feeder is a vxt programmable I believe there is a safety built in to prevent the feeder from severely overfilling and possibly flooding the home. that #667 mechanical low water cutoff is what controls your feeder. as the water drops in the boiler it will send a signal to the feeder to fill the boiler if the water level drops even lower it will kill power to your primary control on the burner and shut it off. if the system is constantly feeding water there are major issues there that need to be corrected. could be a leak somewhere, wet return underground? steam leak? steam boilers can have a steam leak above the water line and steam can be leaving up the chimney, check for white plumes of steam/smoke outside at the chimney, maybe the system overfilled due to a unsteady water line because the water is so dirty the boiler probably needs a good cleaning skimming blowdown etc. boiler is also piped at the minimum could use a good repiping. as far as the riser that doesn't heat correctly its probably has poor pitch a sludge restriction is highly unlikely above the water line. also increase your main venting and radiator venting. post more pics of system, it can help us see what else is going on. I also see some new piping in one of the pics take a pic farther away. also check your operating pressure should be set on the p-troll between .5psi - 1.5 psi no higher.

Steamhead

A boiler that recent and it looks like that? First of all, fire the person who was allegedly maintaining it. He's not doing his job.

It's hard to believe some people still use float-type low-water cutoffs. This boiler has a tapping for a probe-type LWCO located roughly behind the existing one. One of the first things I'd do is switch to a probe-type unit.

The EC/ECT-05 requires two 2" risers to a 3" header. Nothing less will do. It will need to be completely repiped.

The I&O manual is here:

http://www.peerlessboilers.com/DesktopModules/Bring2mind/DMX/Download.aspx?EntryId=87&PortalId=0&DownloadMethod=attachment