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3rd floor rad won’t heat

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Mook531
Mook531 Member Posts: 13
in Strictly Steam
Hey guys, I have a call tomorrow, I’m the 4th tech out. Originally, the whole system got flooded with water, so my company ended up installing a new low water cutoff because that was deemed to have caused the flooding. Since that there have been two trips back for a radiator on the 3rd floor not working. Both calls, according to the history, they didn’t do much. I realize there are a lot of “maybe’s” and “could be’s” in this scenario, but I seem to remember reading in “the lost art” about how if a riser gets flooded, it is very likely to clog with sediment. I don’t have my book with me right now to research this, but am I remembering this correctly? That would seem to fit in the “what changed?” category. Thank you.

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  • nicholas bonham-carter
    nicholas bonham-carter Member Posts: 8,576
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    Are there other risers which are not flooded?
    If all are flooded, there could be a leak in the auto feed valve allowing water in. This could be detected by disconnecting the water inlet pipe on the boiler side of the solenoid valve.
    Some sort of domestic hot water connected to the boiler could be leaking in an indirect.
    Pressure in the boiler could be raising up the water level in the wet returns, (1.75 inches/ounce) starving the boiler, and causing the LWCO to feed more water each time this happens. At the end of each cycle, all the the water comes back. A 0-3 psi gauge on the same pigtail will verify the correct low pressure. Often the pressure is raised up by an inexperienced maintenance person to compensate for lack of main venting. Check the pressuretrol with the gauge for being set under 1.5 psi.
    If you h1ave no gauge, you can connect a hose to the boiler drain to see to what level the wet returns are raising.
    That’s a start.—NBC
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,327
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    How high did the system flood? If this is one pipe, could the vent up there have gotten damaged? Other thing I might look at is are there any low spots which might be still holding water...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Mook531
    Mook531 Member Posts: 13
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    Job got reassigned to the original tech, but if I hear what happened I’ll update. Thanks for the feedback.

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