Came home to a wet floor...where to start?

sdawson

I put my sock firmly in the puddle in the kitchen, tracked it to a spewing stream of water coming from the valve of the small floorboard radiator in the kitchen, and went downstairs to shut the water off.

My basement is soaked in many places, but i soon determined that it's all a result of the leak in the kitchen. so i turned off the water just for that radiator and turned my water back on.

it's a gorton no D angle valve, and I've never looked at it closely, but it looks as if something's missing. surely the relief hole wasnt that big, was it?

i dont know if i should just clean up and replace the valve, or if it's a symptom of something worse.

its 50 degrees today in chicago. i expected something to go wrong on a much colder day.

should I dig deeper than the valve or am I overthinking it?

Hap_Hazzard

Turn off the water to your auto feeder?

JUGHNE

Look at the sight glass on the boiler....hold your hand behind the glass to see if it is completely filled. Your auto feeder could be the culprit and the system completely full up to the kit rad vent.

Hap_Hazzard

There's nothing wrong with the valve. Shutting off that radiator is just going to force with water to fill up to the next radiator. The only way you could get that much water out of a radiator is if the boiler is flooded, and the most likely culprit is an auto water feeder.

sdawson

Hap_hazard, I just learned this.

went to pick up my dogs, came home to water from different radiators.

so now that we've established that the valves are fine, what can I do to get back on track?

is the auto feeder a fixable item, or is it easier to replace?

do I need to empty my boiler and start from scratch?

sdawson

> @JUGHNE said:
> Look at the sight glass on the boiler....hold your hand behind the glass to see if it is completely filled. Your auto feeder could be the culprit and the system completely full up to the kit rad vent.

yep, sight glass is completely full.

ethicalpaul

For now, drain your boiler to its usual level and turn off the valve to your autofeeder (hopefully it has one).

Then you can work on figuring out why.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@sdawson

Drain the boiler down to 1/2 a site glass and restart the boiler. Open up the radiator you shut off (after reinstalling the gorton vent of course).

Now you have to find out why the boiler overfilled. It's one of about 4 things.

1. someone left the manual fill valve on
2. the manual fill valve is leaking by
3. You have an automatic water feeder and it is leaky by
4. You have a tankless water heating coil or an indirect water heater (for domestic hot water) and it' has a defective coil.

Post some pictures and we can help you rule some things in or out

sdawson

you guys are all great, btw, thank you for your help.

so I drained it down...probably went a bit too far so I filled to lowest level using the manual fill button.

I switched the electricity back on and the auto filler actually kicked in some more, then stopped, then I heard the pilot clicking, then everything fired up and the water is heating now.

My concern is that the auto filler actually seems to be operating as intended, so I'm not sure if I can find out what went wrong. Is there such a thing as them just being temperamental, or is this a sign that I need to replace mine?

Also, if I shut down the water supply so that the auto filler does not function, how often do I need to be checking the site glass to make sure that I manually fill? I would hate to do more damage

Hap_Hazzard

Oh, yeah, I forgot about tankless coils.

@sdawson, if you have an automatic water feeder, there should be a valve on each side, so you can shut both off and remove it, but you need to turn it off right now or it will keep on flooding. If you don't have an auto-feeder, you might have a tankless coil for heating your hot water. If you have a separate water heater, this is unlikely, but in any case, you need to turn off any source of water that's connected to your boiler and drain the excess water out of the boiler, Then your boiler should work.

If you can't see where the water is connected to your boiler or can't see how to turn it off, turn off your water main and we'll help you figure it out.

sdawson

another picture, I hope it helps.

I have two water heaters for the house, and the boiler is just for the radiators in kitchen living room and bedrooms. each heater and the boiler have a separate shutoff valve .

the valve for the boiler is immediately before the auto feeder. hope that clarifies.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@sdawson

I would leave the water shut off for now and check the water level once or twice a day until you can get a technician to troubleshoot the water feeder.

Glad your back running

STEAM DOCTOR

Might have slow return

PRR

> auto filler does not function, how often do I need to be checking the site glass to make sure that I manually fill?

I've never had an autofiller, only manual.

If the system is stable, monthly is fine.

Yours is dubious. I'd check every few hours the first day, every day for a week. If the water level is stable (allowing for hot/cold expansion) then you could just check and fill manually forever, like we all did before autofill. Though auto IS a great safety. When it works right.

nicholas bonham-carter

Now that you have valved off the auto feeder, do a test in which you set up the thermostat by a few degrees, and watch the operation of the boiler, as it fires for a longer time than usual. In particular watch for the waterline dropping below the LWCO activation level. Ensure that the LWCO cuts off the burner.
Don’t forget to return the settings to normal when finished with the test!—NBC

BobC

Is your low water cutoff a bulbous manual type that you have to blow down weekly? Those have a float switch in them and should be cleaned out every year or two. If they are not cleaned they can gunk up and cause no end of mischief.

Bob

Hap_Hazzard

It looks like a probe type LWCO. You can just make it out in that second picture he posted.

ChicagoCooperator

I see Dave B's sticker on the boiler, he probably can answer what you have installed.

Fred

In all probability it is the water feeder and when confirmed, it should be replaced. The fact that it feed water after you restarted the boiler means nothing. They will continue to function it's just that the water valve inside that unit does not fully close and water continues to leak past the valve, flooding the boiler.