LWCO red light on but no water added

frank100

Last Monday, I paid a lot to a plumber to replace the glass gauge and pipes due to leaking. Sat morning the boiler fire won’t stay on, and it is on and immediately off and on and off continuously.  I noticed the water reached top of the glass gauge , I drained the water to the middle and turned off the boiler for a while, then it fires normal. Sat night,  I noticed the water on the top again, I drained my boiler to near the bottom of the glass gauge (1 inch ) and LWCO (PS-801-24) red light on, but no water is added for a long time and the red light goes off. May I ask what is wrong? The white wire out of the LWCO and control the part on 2nd photo. What is the part name on the 2nd photo? Could this part be bad. 

Sunday morning , the water is at the 2 inch. Any advice is appreciated!

nicholas bonham-carter

Fill the boiler to the correct level, valve off the auto feed water supply, and see if the waterline remains constant for a few days. Check that with the boiler off for 15 minutes or so to allow the condensate to return.
Many auto feeds have a built in time delay function to prevent overfilling.—NBC

EBEBRATT-Ed

Funky looking water feeder. Never seen that before

neilc

bad looking water in your sightglass, dirty / oily,
you can see the wet at the top of the glass, lots of carry over,
does that water line bounce a lot while firing?
does the glass empty or lower while firing?
triggering calls for more water?
boiler needs a skim,
what pressure do you see when boiling?

frank100

Thanks.  I was looking for the time delay on this LWCO, cannot find it. The glass never empty and I noticed the water gets higher gradually although the LWCO light is not on and water is above the cut off level. It looks like the wet return was very slow. The water line does not bounce while firing. The pressure is 2psi and sometimes go up to 4 or 5 psi. Also the return pipes are on the floor, it must be some dirts inside theses pipes, not sure how I can remove them from these return pipes.  Thanks again.

neilc

the boiler is shutting off when the LWCO red light is on, correct?
it should.

as suggested, shut off the feed water for a cycle or 2 and see that the water doesn't rise,
it should not,
(though it looks like that little feed line may be on the relief port, and may not be "off" side of the valve,)

2 (1.5) psi should be your max, getting to 3,4,5, is not good,
sounds like the pigtail needs checking, and cleaning, or replacing,
let's see you Ptrol, and pigtail,
and let's see a general large picture of the boiler and the near piping above to the ceiling in one shot,
and another large shot showing the returns side,

Jamie Hall

First off, try turning the pressure down -- the boiler should cut off at not more than 2 psi, and come back on again at 1.

And I agree with @EBEBRATT-Ed . Never seen an installation with a simple solenoid valve as the water feeder before. The odds on that valve not closing quite all the way are pretty close to a sure bet. The time delay would be on a proper automatic water feeder, such as a VXT, not on the LWCO anyway.

frank100

Thanks 

neilc

the white wheel inside the Ptrol,
what is it set to?
should be 1,

frank100

I saw it between 3 and 4 but I am not sure where is the mark.

frank100

I turned the white this way, is it correct? It is a Honeywell PA404A model.

neilc

that was a good start,
now point the 1 perpendicular to the side of that switch,
the dial will pretty much stop there,

frank100

Thanks @neilc. The dial cannot turn anymore. 

STEAM DOCTOR

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Funky looking water feeder. Never seen that before

Very common in my part of the world. Real old school. 

neilc

frank100 said:

Thanks @neilc. The dial cannot turn anymore.

just for giggles,
you are turning it counter clockwise as you look down on it, correct?

frank100

@neilc yes, counter clockwise. Right now when the meter reaches a little higher than 2psi, the boiling is shutting off. Thanks.