New steam boiler installed and now there is water hammer and water coming from radiator vents.

jdp1219

What do I do with the water in the hot water loop?  I have a circulator pump that runs hot water through the basement baseboards.  Does that water have to be skimmed also?

mattmia2

It should all eventually work its way to the boiler, that is why you probably will need to do it a couple times.

neilc

the oils and skum layer float on top of your boiler water,
doing the skimming floats that top layer out of the boiler,
your hot water loop circulates under the top layer, and likely has less oils than to be concerned with,
that said, do expect to skim more than once

jdp1219

Here is my skim set up.  Starting now.  Wish me luck.

ethicalpaul

First of all, a Boilerman should be doing the skimming, you can get hurt and damage your equipment 

If only the “boilermen” would actually skim. So many homeowners come here with newly installed boilers that haven’t been skimmed...or sized right...or piped right.

neilc

jdp1219 said:

Here is my skim set up.  Starting now.  Wish me luck.

hopefully that hose bib / boiler drain is not holding back the top layer,
if you look in the open of the tee, are you seeing a 1/2 pipe of water?
as convenient as the hose to the floor drain is,
you would be better to skim from the just the open end of that extended nipple into buckets,
then you would observe the scuz, and proper flow,
and have no chance of the water level hitting the drain valve, and the top oils being held high and or back,

or, that end drain valve should be fully open, and the 1/4 to 1/2 pipe of water seen in the tee should be regulated at the fill valve

EBEBRATT-Ed

@jdp1219

I posted the skimming instructions a few posts back.

The instructions with the boiler are wrong. How do you run the boiler for hours without building pressure?. Impossible


All the boiler mfg have different instructions. Dan Holohan lists some of them in the Lost Art Of Steam heating.

He then consolidated them into a method that works and it's in the book. It's basically what I posted above.

Use the skim tapping

jdp1219

neilc said:

Here is my skim set up.  Starting now.  Wish me luck.

hopefully that hose bib / boiler drain is not holding back the top layer, if you look in the open of the tee, are you seeing a 1/2 pipe of water? as convenient as the hose to the floor drain is, you would be better to skim from the just the open end of that extended nipple into buckets, then you would observe the scuz, and proper flow, and have no chance of the water level hitting the drain valve, and the top oils being held high and or back, or, that end drain valve should be fully open, and the 1/4 to 1/2 pipe of water seen in the tee should be regulated at the fill valve

I was having some issues with the original setup but have fixed it.  Here is a pic of the new setup.

jdp1219

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

@jdp1219 I posted the skimming instructions a few posts back. The instructions with the boiler are wrong. How do you run the boiler for hours without building pressure?. Impossible All the boiler mfg have different instructions. Dan Holohan lists some of them in the Lost Art Of Steam heating. He then consolidated them into a method that works and it's in the book. It's basically what I posted above. Use the skim tapping

I am not running the boiler for hours.  In fact I am only running it about 1 or 2 minutes at a time and then leaving it off for about 10 minutes.  It seems to be working great.  I did use the relief valve port and not the skim.  The relief valve seem to be a bit higher than the skim port.  I don't understand how the manufacturer instructions were published incorrectly .... pretty crazy.

jdp1219

I got bored and made a video of the whole process.  Check it out.

https://youtu.be/gw2lasockNM

neilc

utube comments aren't public (?)

you might be able to run that water just a little faster, but you're the one there,
water looks pretty clean looking in the tee,
how skuzzy was it ?

jdp1219

On the camera in looks pretty clear but in person you could see a thin film looking thing sliding out.  Youtube comments should be public.

jdp1219

Good news!  The water hammer and the crazy surging completely stopped after the skim!! Thanks for everyone's help.  Surges about an inch now as opposed to 5 or 6in on the sight glass before the skim.  I skimmed for about 3.5 hours.  Unfortunately something is up with either the pressure gauge or the pressuretol now.  The boiler doesn't cut off until the gauge reads 5 psi now and it cuts back on when it reads 0.  Before it cut out at 2psi and cut back in at around 1.5psi.  Any ideas on whats going on?  Pigtail or gauge clogged from the skimming?  I unclogged the pigtail on my old boiler a few times so I know how to do that.  Only issue is the way the water piping is done on this boiler, it may be difficult.  See picture.  

neilc

your installer owes you moving that water feed up so the Ptrol and pigtail can be serviced,

I think you said it in the video, but,
don't be surprised or disappointed if you need to skim again a time or 2,

neilc

or, can you tighten, turn the pigtail 90ish, clockwise, and turn the Ptrol there?

mattmia2

I'd probably cut the pigtail then install it with a union and a nipple to get it more accessible. Actually, i would do the water seal with brass tees and plugs trick so i could service it without taking it apart.

jdp1219

mattmia2 said:

I'd probably cut the pigtail then install it with a union and a nipple to get it more accessible. Actually, i would do the water seal with brass tees and plugs trick so i could service it without taking it apart.

Any videos on this trick?

mattmia2

Look at on page 2 how @ethicalpaul piped a U for his controls and gauges about half way down. you can fold it back to be parallel to the boiler instead of perpendicular to make it more compact. you wiull probably need some unions in your application because you won't have the clearence to turn the controls or gauges.

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/180795/diy-steam-boiler-install/p2

mattmia2

Here is another example by @New England SteamWorks

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/183316/new-megasteam-install-2