Drain-Off Running Brown Right After Supposed Cleaning

Jimmbo

Hi, non-expert consumer question!

Plumbing company did their annual cleaning/inspection of my gas/steam system. The guy told me "all done", took my money, and I asked him to remind me how to drain water from the system (which I vaguely remember being told to do monthly).

We headed back to the basement, he turned a faucet on the side of the boiler, and a blast of filthy brown water came out. It quickly turned clear.

Question: Did that initially dark brown water mean he didn't actually clean it?

Jamie Hall

Normally the cleaning on a steam boiler is on the first side -- which does indeed need to be cleaned. So the filthy brown water from the water side somewhere doesn't mean anything, one way or another, as to whether he cleaned it.

Now -- where is that valve? if it's on a mechanical float blowdown, then yes, it should be blown down about once a month, give or take, and it will be pretty cruddy and hopefully quickly turn clear.

Jimmbo

Thanks, Jamie!

The valve in question is the red one at lower right. He said to fill a half bucket or so monthly

KC_Jones

Some chocolate is fairly normal in a steam boiler.  Also I would not take anything out monthly, as far as I’m concerned no benefit and can actually make things worse.

Jamie Hall

No need to drain that valve monthly. Yearly, maybe. But not monthly.