Cleaning a boiler?

1Matthias

I was wondering what some recommendations would be for thoroughly cleaning an exceedingly dirty steam boiler. I'm already skimmed and flushed it, as well as a flush with TSP added, but the waterline is still unstable. I was wondering about adding a bunch more TSP and boiling for a while, then flushing that. I've also heard of "steamaster tablets", but I'm not sure if those will help any. Thoughts?

EBEBRATT-Ed

1lb of tsp/50 gallons of boiler water. Run it till it just starts to steam and shut it off. Hook a hose to the skim port and add water, just a trickle and skim for 4 hours at least. Drain and fill a couple of times the fill it and run it. The slower and longer the skim the better

1Matthias

@EBEBRATT-Ed Ok, will do. For reference, this is a 5 year old weil-mclain 75 that had never been skimmed or flushed until today. Compounding that, it was taking on excessive water due to a litany of leaks throughout the system until a week or two ago when I found and fixed most of them. Is there anything else besides cleaning I can do to help its longevity?

NTL1991

Have you looked into having that near-boiler piping addressed? I think you'll find that a re-piping will bring MAJOR improvements to the comfort, efficiency and longevity you get from your system. If it were my boiler, it would be my absolute first priority. I'm not sure how much you'd gain from cleaning and skimming considering how far off your piping is.

The near boiler piping on today's smaller boilers should be considered part of the boiler itself. It's of critical importance. If you've put an end to those leaks, you've already done a great deal to extending it's longevity, but it's just part of the work to be done here.

1Matthias

@NTL1991 The near-boiler piping is going to be redone sometime this summer. There are no competent steam heat specialists in the area (One local HVAC firm's website pretty much states that they replace steam heat with forced air...), so we will likely be re-doing it ourselves. In the meantime, I am trying to do what I can to keep what we have running, bad as it may be.

NTL1991

Understood. There's lots and lots of good info here. Take a look at the install pics of the pro's here. Study them. I even save some of the install pics for reference.

Even an ideal setup with a drop header isn't that complicated to design and pipe, and with all the experience here, you're in good hands. Make a diagram following your WM's manual and ideas here (like drop header) and let us see.

Most of the trouble is that these heating contractors (like the one you mentioned, most likely) simply can't or won't follow the manual. As one of the pro's here asked: "Why is it so hard to make it like the picture?" For some, it's all about saving time, saving money and/or avoiding inconvenience. They don't realize that *every* pipe and fitting plays a part in near boiler-piping.

The appropriate amount of Steamaster wouldn't be a bad idea after cleaning and skimming.

Danny Scully

Where are you located @1Matthias?

1Matthias

So, update. The boiler wins the "world's dirtiest boiler" award by far. I probably used 200 gallons of water skimming and flushing it, and the water coming out is still somewhat dirty. At least now it isn't rusty red transitioning to pitch black with chunks on bottom and oil on top. My only question is how clean should I aim for the water coming out to be? I can keep flushing and skimming the boiler, but I have a feeling that it's probably not going to do much more at this point.

@Danny Scully Very far away from any of the contractors in the "Find a contractor" tool on this site. We are well over 500 miles from the nearest.

delta T

@1Matthias not everyone on here advertises in the 'find a contractor' section, tell us where you are and we may know someone near you. Let the boiler run for a week and skim again, wash rinse and repeat until you are satisfied. You will be able to get it clean, but it will take a while to get all of the nasty dirt and oil still stuck out in the system back to the boiler where you can skim it out or flush it out.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@1Matthias yes your approximate location. Even if there are no listed contractors near you everyone knows somebody in the business they could possibly recommend

1Matthias

@EBEBRATT-Ed @delta T @Danny Scully We are located in the mountains of southwest VA, almost into northeast TN.

AMservices

Here's a dirty EG-75 I cleaned up, Loaded with mud. Looked like it was boiling straight oil.
To clean it I did everything everything that @EBEBRATT-Ed described and one other thing.....
I opened the plugs on the bottom of boiler and used a clean, soft lint brush (one like you would use to clean a dryer vent) and ran it through, scraping out the piles of crap with water flowing.
had to go back twice before calling it clean.
I also removed gauge glass service valves and LWCO to clean their tappings.
After putting everything back together, I return the water to the normal water line and I leave the skim port open. When the boiler start vaporizing, i shut it down and skim until the water is clear or cold and do it again if necessary.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@1Matthias , wow, sounds you are really out in the boondocks. Guess your gonna have to do it yourself. You can do it. Were here to help. I would suggest a copy of Dan's book Lost art of steam heat available here. The trick to skimming is to skim slowly. It's got to clear up sooner or later

1Matthias

@EBEBRATT-Ed Yep, we are pretty far out here. The guy who did the boiler install was the only one around here willing to even look at steam heat, so. We have a copy of LAOSH, which I am using to completely re-evaluate the system. It looks like the boiler is actually a fair amount oversized for the radiation in the house. (Weil-McLain EG-75 with 465.75EDR of radiation connected), so that probably isn't helping either. EDIT: If you want, I can post the calculations I've done so far.

@AMservices Yeah, that's about what ours looked like, but with 5 years of rust from excessive makeup water. I'll definitely have to try the brush trick, that will make cleaning it a lot easier.

1Matthias

@EBEBRATT-Ed Here's the calcs and the drawings I've done so far. (Sorry about my lack of drawing skill) Is there anything else I should consider/do before continuing?

JUGHNE

How did you throttle your 300,000 down to 150,000 BTUH?

1Matthias

@JUGHNE The gas valve for the boiler was set to roughly half-flow, however that is no longer the case. That was done to stop the steam hammer that was occurring after the boiler install, but I discovered that adding a Big Mouth to the main loop allowed the valve to be opened fully with no hammer occurring.