Help! Yikes! Did Something Stupid

JSR

Yikes! Just finished cleaning up a mess! Our boiler has a leak in it such that I have to add water twice a day. When I did that tonight before I went to bed, I left the valve on the water line open. (Either a senior moment or malicious elves have taken up living in the basement.) An hour or so later, my wife woke me up and, with perhaps the understatement of the year, calmly said, "I hate to wake you up, but I think we have a problem." Water was dripping from the living room ceiling light fixture and through a spot in the ceiling and was all over the living room floor, which fortunately is not carpeted. In the bathroom above the living room, there was water on the floor and I could see some water coming out of the inlet valve. In the basement, water was pouring out of the pressure relief valve on the boiler and the basement floor was covered with water. I believe the water flooded the boiler and backed up in at least some of the pipes and radiators all the way to the second floor. I shut the boiler down and drained all the water out of the system until the water was at the normal level in the boiler per the sight glass. It took quite a while to do that.

I guess I am wondering if it is ok to start the boiler again in them morning or if I have created some huge problem? One thing I am wondering is if the radiators are still filled with water or if the water would have drained out through the steam traps (we have a two-pipe system). It seems to me that without steam in the radiators, the traps would have been open and the water would have drained out.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

Jeff

nicholas bonham-carter

I and many others here have done that once!
I put a spring loaded inlet valve on the water feed, and so cannot repeat the mistake.
The water should have completely drained out of the radiators, unless one of the traps is failed shut.
Unless you can see a leak in the return piping, it will be time for a new boiler.
It is time to measure up all your radiators for their EDR so the replacement boiler can be sized properly, (do not simply go by the present boiler rating).--NBC

JSR

Thanks, NBC! I will definitely put in a spring loaded inlet valve!

Jamie Hall

Fire her up and see what happens. Don't be alarmed if you have some water hammer for a while -- you may have odd dollops of water in there which will -- eventually! -- drain out.

JSR

Flooding the boiler and pipes somehow made my leak worse. I'm pretty sure that before the flooding the leak was at or near the normal water line. Now this morning I can't get the boiler to hold any water. If I put any water in it just drips out. I'm not sure what caused the change.

I guess its space heaters until I can get this replaced. Fortunately the end of the heating season is in sight.

JUGHNE

I would take advantage of the misfortune to make notes of where the water leaked from other than the boiler pressure relief valve. These could be potential invisible steam leaks in the future and cause you to have to add make up water (not as much as last night though).

Jamie Hall

JSR said:

Flooding the boiler and pipes somehow made my leak worse. I'm pretty sure that before the flooding the leak was at or near the normal water line. Now this morning I can't get the boiler to hold any water. If I put any water in it just drips out. I'm not sure what caused the change.

I guess its space heaters until I can get this replaced. Fortunately the end of the heating season is in sight.

Spring is coming. Nothing like a little (?!) extra pressure to find the problems, though, eh? Cheer up -- we've all done something like that, now and then.

JSR

Thanks for the ideas and kind comments. I am feeling much better this morning ! Simply by coincidence I had a guy scheduled to come and look at our boiler this morning and give me an estimate for replacing it. I was despairing because I was having trouble finding someone knowledgeable about steam. He just left and I think I have found my guy!! He was familiar with Dan's work and had been to at least two of Dan's seminars and does nothing but steam and hot water. He was very knowledgeable. A big sigh of relief!

BobC

I'm glad you found the right guy. i did something similar about 25 years ago. I was home sick and went down to check the boiler level, I found it about an inch low and added water to bring it back up to the right level.

A couple of hours later I awoke to a chorus of the anvil chorus. I went down to the basement and found the sight glass full and water coming out of the main air vent1.

live and learn,

Bob

vaporvac

Could I have more info on the spring-loaded inlet valve. How does it work? I think I need one, too.

nicholas bonham-carter

It would be the type of valve used on campground showers. Mine has a chain on the lever arm which I have to pull to fill.--NBC