noisy boiler

dontsteamme

Hello,
New to the forum, and appreciative of anyone taking the time to read this.

I have a gas-fired steam boiler (New Yorker) that I had installed about 7-8 years ago. It was installed in the summer and when I first fired it up for heat in the winter, it was noisy. Did some reading and figured out that it probably wasn't skimmed, so I did some serious flushing, and never had another problem. I also had a friend who told me it was wise to drain and fill weekly, so I always did.

Made friends in town with a plumber, and he offered to help me with some work, and when we were in my basement, he advised using some kind of additive in the boiler at the beginning of every season (turns the water in the sight glass green), and that I should AVOID frequent flushing/adding fresh water into the system. Thinking that he probably knew more than my other friend, I added the stuff last winter, and didn't drain the boiler all season. Come this season, added the stuff, and it turned from green to MUD, so I drained and filled several times, and added more of the additive (Sorry I don't recall the name of the powder). Finally got it running clear again, added another can, but the boiler is NOISY like it was that first season. I've flushed it weekly, but it still does the "kettling" on startup, and it gets better in 5-10 minutes, but the pipes are making noise once a head of steam comes up (and all the radiators are pitched properly with newish valves).

It seems the noisy boiler starts up, and then the pipes start making noise! Some banging of the radiators, but not too much. Can anyone advise? Maybe I have some scaling in the furnace? The plumber (who has been too busy to come back) said "hey don't crack the boiler with all that flushing," but I always make sure the boiler is ice cold before draining/filling. Baffled. I certainly don't like the sound of the boiler, and I don't want to shorten it's life.

Jamie Hall

Drain it -- and additive. Then refill it and flush it once. That should get most of the additive out. Then refill it with good clean water. If you really want to add something, try one -- ONE -- Steammaster tablet. But you shouldn't need it.

There's no harm to flushing the boiler out -- once, at the end of the season. Then refill it and bring it up to a full steam for at least 10 minutes; the more the merrier. Otherwise, the oxygen in the fresh water does more harm than good.

newagedawn

piping pics would help

Fred

Your friend told you to drain and refill the boiler every week or do you mean just blow down a float type Low water cut-off? The last thing you want to do is drain the entire boiler weekly or add chemicals, other than maybe what Jamie says, a Steamaster tablet every now and then.