Webster Vapor with new Megasteam MST513, ran well for two days, now one main will not heat.

EricBaisch

Hello All. I purchased a house with a Webster Vapor system 9 years ago and have been educating myself on this site ever since. I even got Steamhead to stop by for a look at the system when he was in the Philly area. The boiler connected to the system when I purchased the house was sized for the radiation on just the second floor and a forced air system was used for the first floor. I have been using just the steam system and it has been doing fine as I also burn about 4 cords of wood each heating season. Last winter the Columbia branded Utica started to leak above the waterline at the push nipples so I started to look for a heating contractor to install a new boiler. Based in information on this site and my meeting with Steamhead I decided I wanted a wet based boiler with a power gas burner. Finding someone to do this in Philadelphia was no easy task. The new boiler was finally powered up this past Friday at the end of the day. The technician drilled the EZ Gas burner orifice one side smaller than specified for the 189,000 BTU/HR rating of the MST513 so it could run a few days at a lower firing rate before he comes back for skimming and final set-up of the burner. The input to the boiler was clocked at 137,000 BTU/HR. The boiler ran great for the entire weekend but Monday morning when I checked on it before work it was cycling off on pressure (under 1 psi) and one of the steam mains was not getting hot. I shut it down and went to work. I thought I knew enough about the system to figure out the problem but for the last two evenings I have been playing around and cannot get the one main to heat. Steam starts to travel down the main but it seems to get halted when the Hydrolevel Cyclegard shuts down boiler. It is over two minutes before the boiler fires up again and any progress the steam seems to have made down the main is reversed. The main seems to be actually cooling down the longer the boiler runs! Of course the main did heat for two days so the system must be capable of running with the Cyclegard. I have removed the lid on the crossover trap to vent the main directly and also the lids on some of the radiator traps to see if the would jumpstart the system with no luck. Of course I have been skimming the boiler for many hours in between all this. I tried removing the vapor check ball from my Webster vent. I even tried some of the Steamaster tablets I purchased on Amazon thanks the effort of wall member Sailah (I replaced the elements in all my 512 trap bodies with B and J 1998 cage units). Right about now I feel like I have a tennis ball stuck in my one main! Does anyone have any idea what may be causing my problem and how to solve it?

BobC

Is it possible something moved and that main is now slightly out of pitch? I know it seemed to work for a couple of days but something may have shifted.

If water was pooling in a pipe it would collapse any steam that tried to cross the pool. The only other thought is they stuffed a rag in the pipe to stop it dripping and it found its way to an inconvenient place where it's impeding the steam flow (VERY far fetched).

Bob

KC_Jones

Off topic but, how did you get someone to install a gas gun in a megasteam?!

Steamhead

I'd bet dirty water is doing this- seen it happen many times. Flush and skim, and see if that helps.

Not sure who you finally hired, but whoever it is really needs to be on Find a Contractor. That is one beautiful install.

EricBaisch

Thanks Bob. I did run around a bit with a small plumbers level but I think I'll get out my water level and map out the pitch of the main. It really does seem like a rag in there! It seems like there is so much steam condensing in the other main that it is just sucking away any steam heading for the problem main. When I take a radiator trap lid off air seems to just breathe in and out. When the Cyclegard stops the boiler to check water level I can hear the water in the boiler and at the end of the functioning main in the wet return start to boil as they system goes into vapor. I measured up all my pipes and fittings in the basement and am going to order 1 1/2" insulation for all my pipes in the basement, maybe that will help? Maybe also replacing the Cyclegard with Safgard?

KC, I told the installer that I wanted a Smith G-8 or Slantfin intrepid based on suggestions on this site. He said he does not like those but would like to do a Megasteam with Riello burner. Nobody I spoke to here in Philly had good things to say about the Smith or the Slantfin. It must be a regional thing. Half of heating contractors I called don't touch steam. 3/4 of those that did were wondering why anyone would install a gas conversion burner into an oil boiler. There was a mix-up with the burner ordered and it would be another 6 weeks for the Riello so we went with the Carlin EZ Gas. I did not have to prompt for the Burnham I was thrilled when he suggested that he would install it.

Mad Dog_2

I'm with Steamhead.....DIRTY...Mad Dog

EricBaisch

Thanks guys.....been skimming for a few hours and will keep it going a while longer tonight. The installer should be back any day to increasing the firing rate and do his skimming. I'll keep you posted and hopefully it is not a tennis ball in there.

Update......continued skimming and then fired the boiler. Steamhead and Mad Dog were correct. I had been skimming right along but for shorter shifts. I would capture skim water in a clear glass container for inspection and I thought is looked clear. I even put some in a saucepan and boiled it on my stove. I know I have read it a hundred or more times on this site that long skimming is sometimes needed but now I know not to go by how the skim water looks. Before I tried to troubleshoot my problem I thought for sure I would find the check valve where the problem main drips to the wet return had stuck shut and the main was flooded. The problem main comes off the drop header just a few inches from the functioning main so I assumed incorrectly that the problem was up the main farther. I really wish I could have seen what was going on inside the boiler to cause this.