Heat on one side of the house only

clammy

After reading your posts I would look into gas pressure also ,I would think in Hackensack you have hi pressure mains Especially since you have stated that your service was upgraded meaning they where update the street main pretty common .peace and good luck clammy

JUGHNE

The OP stated that all was well last season.
The gas service is what changed since then.

I did not see any mention of actual steam pressure shown on the gauge. If only a worthless 0-30 PSI gauge it would reflect no change in ounces from last year to this year.

davert

Resolution!

I noticed that when the system was under load, the sight glass was dropping quite a bit. That suggested very wet steam or foaming. I haven't had wet steam issues, so I thought about foaming, especially since dropping the water level had made a small impact, and since the gasping (as two or three of you wrote) indicated water issues.

Since there's no way I can get the gas company here over Christmas to check pressure, I flushed out the boiler and refilled it with mostly distilled water. Nothing seemed unusual, but when I filled it back up... the problem was gone. All radiators working perfectly. No cycling from overpressure.

Not sure how the water got contaminated, but apparently it did. Maybe something the water company did when replacing the pipe outside? (Here I apologize since this was another event I just hadn't considered.) They demanded we run all the faucets, and I did, but... well, I have no idea how something could have gotten into the boiler. It seems unlikely this was the path. (I have been filtering all potable water, including for the cats, since the water company was here. I'd been filtering most potable water anyway because it's pretty bad here since Suez built luxury homes around the edge of the reservoirs.)

pH of the water in the boiler was just over 9, which shouldn't cause much foaming, but with the junk in the water, apparently did.

If nothing else, this spurred me to replace most of the Varivalves with Gorton's valves which were in storage, and I'll probably replace the others, too. I also replaced the taped-over valve in the sun porch (used as an office) with a thermostatic valve from Supply House.

To be done: First, I still need to fix that return which is still an issue, though now a much more minor one. Second, I do plan to call the gas company tomorrow to get a new reading (and to find out if the dials are still calibrated, given that it's a digital meter).

@clammy: I've seen here in the past few days that the Varivents are bad news, but ... they are the only quiet vents I know of for the bedrooms ... that said, I am replacing those today and seeing if the occupants can sleep through the light whistling.

Thank you all! for your time and expertise. I am stunned by the outpouring of thought and help here. I have no idea how to repay you other than helping people where I can, with the things I know how to do.

Long Beach Ed

How many times must the same thing be said? Check the gas input. Everything was fine before they changed the gas meter. The gas input's low.

Icarus

Isn’t it funny how it is always the last thing you try that fixes it? I’m glad you got it figured out, once again proving, “what has changed?”

ICARUS

CantabHeat

Great to hear. Not the first time I’ve heard of this scenario. If the boiler is foaming, surging or doing other things all sorts of strange stuff can happen downstream. If good quality consistent steam isn’t coming off the top of the boiler then it can be near impossible to fix anything downstream.

If you’re not already doing so something like steammaster or 8-way or something similar can help in keeping things under control. My boiler water used to be like chocolate milk but after a few cycles and flushes with a small amount of treatment in the water I get basically zero oxidation of of components and the boiler water stays crystal clear (well crystal purple/pink). That combined with a quick skim maybe twice a year seems to help keep things much calmer and consistent on the steam production front.

Even after months of use the only thing that comes out of my mud leg on the wet return is a few small flakes that physically broke off pipes but it appears that rusting has stopped completely.

Some people here despise water treatments but I can say that for our system it’s really helped a lot.

BobC

I've used SteaMaster since my Smith boiler was installed in 2013 and the boiler water is clear of corrosion, the right product can be very good.

Bob

davert

I'll look at those. Thanks. I would skim more often but the plumber didn't install a skim valve, so it's “all the water out, flush, refill, and boil” or “remove the emergency valve and skim from there” which works but isn't ideal. I haven't skimmed in a few years, honestly, so that's next. Guess I'll do that in conjunction with SteaMaster. I have been using sodium sulfite (sulfate?) on the original plumber's advice... now I'm wondering if I accidentally overdosed on that.

Gas company has me on their schedule now. That said, the flames are a beautiful blue with the yellow flickers at random points. I was surprised at how good it looks. I might have an “L” burner in there which would account for some of the lower gas use. Also, I got the return pipe dropped on one side so now there's a nice steady flow. Finally, the VariValves are all gone. It does seem better without them, though I'll miss their dead silence!