Like my beautiful, moody ex-girlfriend...SOS in Portland!!!

BobC

Steam heat is VERY reliable once it's working right, Ive yeplaced the boiler but only had one service call in 39 years. I did have the oill boiler cleaned yearly.

It sounds like the VXT fill valve is leaking by to me and I can't see any signs of you using that boiler to heat domestic hot water so a leaky coil is out of the picture. Have someone check out the auto water feed valve (as well as any bypass valve), the LWCO and the gauge glass ports. Those gauge glass ports should be cleaned every year when the boiler is cleaned.

Steam boilers s\do not take a lot of maintenance but they should be looked at a couple of times a week. I've had steam boilers for over 70 years and never had an auto feeder on any of them and have never had a problem with water level. If you have an auto feeder it tends to encourage neglect and those feeders will punish you for that neglect.

Bob

nde

I know it can be hard to find contractors who know steam in Maine, there are none advertising here. The auto feeder is measuring gallons usually. 51 gallons added is a lot esp if you say it is not registering new water even on such a drastic overfill. I would think a decent contractor not even steam expert should be able to tell you possibly what is wrong with it.

As mentioned previously it could be your returns are so long that on longer calls for heat (setbacks or really cold weather) the boiler runs low on water and auto adds to compensate, but then once therm is satisfied all that water returns and pushes into the mains/floods. What is your EDR of all rads compared to boiler size? It may actually be too small!

While waiting for a contractor I would set the therm up a few degrees to kick in a long cycle and just watch the boiler to see if
1)surging water (bad near piping or oily water)
2)wait for pressure to build , could take up to an hour or so
3)once pressure builds does the system add water and when it does confirm the feeder is not registering the water

It could be a combination of long returns and water running low combined with stuck auto feeder.

Jamie Hall

A few comments -- which others may have covered before.

Pressure gauge. If you boiler is seriously overfilled -- which it surely sounds as though it was -- remember that the pressure gauge is measuring water pressure now, not steam pressure. 5 pounds is not outrageous for a really bad overfill situation. It should come back to normal when you get the boiler drained down to where it belongs.

Feeder. If the water feeder valve is leaking by, the number on the feeder (which is usually calibrated to measure gallons, sort of -- but isn't really a water meter, but rather is triggered when the autofeeder is asked to feed) won't change, even though water is coming in. If there are valves to valve off the water feeder (there should be) close them when you get the boiler water level back to where it belongs and watch the level. It shouldn't change. Then open them back up and watch -- it still shouldn't change. If it does the valve is leaking by. It may or may not be repairable.

Also on the feeder. Several folks have mentioned the possibility of slow condensate return triggering the feeder. I think it would register that, but most autofeeders have an adjustment for delay on a call for water. Check your owner's manual and see if it does, and if it does and this is a problem, set it for a longer delay.

rgargoum

Thanks for your response!

Yes I want a reliable technician!! Any recommendations in Portland, ME??

I cleaned the pigtail tonight after draining the boiler back to the appropriate level. The pigtail was not clogged.

It does seem that my pressuretrol might be faulty, but I've also heard that they only work inconsistently at the low pressures at which our systems should operate.

I'm really puzzled about this whole boiler flooding thing. The system works fine with a stable water level, then all of a sudden, I come home one day to whistling valves and a puddle around the boiler.

I guess I have to assume that the automatic feeder is firing for some reason.

I'll get to insulating tomorrow.

But is this how a system should be? Should it require constant vigilance?

Thanks for your help!

Gsmith

Why don't you try turning off the automatic feeder for a while, and monitoring the water level over a few weeks. You can add water if needed manually using the bypass valve normally fitted with the auto feeder. You should not have to add water very often, perhaps once per month or so, if you are not losing water somewhere.

rgargoum

This has helped. Not sure why the auto feeder is coming on.

Is there a way to reduce the volume of water that it automatically fills?

Jamie Hall

rgargoum said:

This has helped. Not sure why the auto feeder is coming on.

Is there a way to reduce the volume of water that it automatically fills?

Depends on the feeder. Check your documentation, but many have a way to select a specific number of gallons or to just feed until the feeder trigger is satisfied.