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No header ? After 20 years of boiler use.

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Comments

  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
    If there is a lot of bounce in the water in the sight glass (more than the normal 1/2" to 3/4" or there is condensation in the top half of the sight glass, that's a good indication that the boiler needs a skimming. Skimming is usually only required when a new boiler is installed or when any of the piping has been replaced and oils have been introduced into the system. Other than that, it is usually not required.
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,505
    Does the water in the sight glass bounce up and down a lt when making steam? If it does the boiler needs skimming, if the water is filthy the boiler has to be flushed out a few times.

    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • srmaietta
    srmaietta Member Posts: 40
    Skimming is something you do if you feel that the water is dirty and there may be oil or other gunk floating on the surface that may be causing boiler issues. I needed to do it a few times after I added some chem water treatment to my system. The treatment cleaned the heck out of my boiler and near piping and brought a bunch of junk into my water. I had to drain and refill once and then skim a few times over a few days. Once I did this the boiler settled right down and my water has been clean and corrosion free for over a year.

    If you haven't been adding much water, or haven't messed with the piping or teatments then its unlikely you need to skim.


    To skim, you basically open the highest port on your boiler, either a dedicated skim pot or in my case I used the upper port of the water level sight glass. You then turn on the water feed to as slow as you can get it, so the top level of the water is just flowing out of the exposed pipe or port. Drip by drip or a very slow trickle, the top layer of the boiler water just skimming off, taking any floating oil with it. Take an hour or so to fill a good bucket. Then seal it back off and fire it up for a while to boil up the new water and you may see a big improvement if the dirty water was an issue.

    ~Steve (No expert, just sharing my experience)

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