How much Steammaster for a large commercial boiler?

Abracadabra

I've been asked by a customer to treat the water on an old Peerless 211A-14 with steammaster tablets. 7000 sq.ft. steam. if i go by steammaster's instruction, that's 420 tablets. (6 tablets per 100sq.ft.) about 11-12 bottles worth. if i can even find that many at my supplier. I've never used steammaster on commercial boilers. always cleaned them out with washing soda or TSP.

has anyone used steammaster on a large commercial boiler? TIA

ChrisJ

I agree with @Hatterasguy
1-2 tablets per 8-12 gallons.

If I'm reading it right, that boiler holds around 110 gallons.

So, no less than 9 tablets and no more than 26 tablets.

If it was me, I'd toss in 12 tablets and wait a few cycles. If the water turns a nice violet color and the boiler isn't producing carry over call it good. If the color is a bit light, you can add a few more and then wait again. If it starts puking it's contents into the header drain some out and replace with fresh water.

Koan

I recently put 10 tablets in my boiler. 1969 American Standard. 300,000 Btu/h gross. Boiler rated for 750 Sq Ft EDR. Is running fine, no foaming, but the blow down water is red. It look like Hawaiian Punch
Any Ideas? It looks pink in the gauge glass. Any guess as to the number of gallons this holds??

Abracadabra

Thanks guys. I called Rectorseal and the tech support there was kind of useless. Was telling me to just follow the directions on the bottle... (facepalm)

Anyways.. before I saw the couple responses. I dropped 20 tablets in there, and water got to be a deeper purple than I'm used to seeing. a lot of surging in the sight glass. Emptied about half and refilled, got a nicer light violet and stable water line. I'm thinking about 9-11 tablets should be fine for about 120-125 gallons. I'm including the water content in the return header manifold (dry returns).

@Koan I can't see how 10 tablets on a 750 sq.ft. boiler could work unless you have ~120 gallons, which would be quite a bit of water content for a 750sq.ft. steam boiler.

Abracadabra

Hatterasguy said:

We already thought of it all for you....................all you needed to do was to read first.

Yeah yeah.. i know.. i posted the original question from the job while on my phone while waiting for boiler to refill. didn't check for responses till i got home in the evening

Thanks though!

Koan

any ideas about the red color as opposed to purple?

Abracadabra

Koan said:

any ideas about the red color as opposed to purple?

Never seen steamaster turn red. maybe a combo of rust brown and purple showing up as red?

RomanGK_26986764589

@Koan Mine does turn red too from just 1 tablet. Water will start eventually surging too. So I drain some and after that the boiler water is stable.

Koan

@RomanGK_26986764589 do you have an older boiler like mine where red could be caused by rust plus purple?

How long before your boiler starts surging?

My first treatment was three tablets and surging started in a few hours. I skimmed about three times and drained a bit and the surging stopped. 3 weeks ago I added the 10 tablets - I was expecting surging that has not yet happened. I am wondering if the three prior skims got rid of the problem?

RomanGK_26986764589

@Koan The boiler is 10 years old. I skimmed it multiple times. Usually the surging would start in about a week after I add one steam master tablet and the water would be like a Punch. Now I am running without any steam master treatment and all is well, no surging but water is a bit rusty in a sight glass.

Koan

@RomanGK_26986764589 Thanks - no surging here yet, but this is the second time. The first the surging was really bad.