Much needed advice with furnace

Mrnobody8605

I need advice of what can be done with my furnace. I'm not a handy man and I'm unfortunately on the spectrum and people tend to take advantage of that. I figured I'd try to reach out to some of you that are much smarter than I in hopes to get an idea of how to solve my problem. I have this oil burner inside my house that spits out water whenever it runs. It seems like a terrible design for something that is inside the house, there is no drain for the water to go into so I am left with putting a bucket where the water comes out then about every 2 to 4 hrs walking the bucket to the bathroom to dump the water down the toilet. I even have to get up around 2 or 3 in the morning to dump out the bucket and if I happen to sleep through the night I wake up to the room and hallway flooded with water. Is there anything that I can do to stop this from happening that won't kill me, leave me badly burned, or blow my house up? I'm getting tired of having to empty this bucket every day multiple times a day. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time. 

Jamie Hall

If the bucket is where it spits out, that's your pressure relief valve -- and it should not be spitting -- as you are aware! Somewhere nearby -- it doesn't show in your pictures -- there has to be a pressure gauge, and there also has to be an expansion tank (a medium size tank, often just hung from the plumbing -- probably about the size of a basketball more or less...). The pressure gauge will tell you what the water pressure in the system is. Unless this is a very tall house indeed, it shouldn't be more than about 15 psi when the system is cool. The expansion tank allows the water to expand when it heats up, so the pressure doesn't rise too much -- to perhaps no more than 20 psi when the boiler is good and hot.

My bet is going to be that that expansion tank isn't doing its job. There are several reasons why it might not be.

So... if you could come up with a coupe of more pictures showing that tank and its connection to the boiler, and could take a look at and report the numbers on the gauges (or, if it's hard to interpret, photos when it's cold and warm) we can help further.

STEVEusaPA

For starters, it's a boiler, dry base.
You got a lot going on there, most of it wrong. The scorch mark tells me you may not have the cleanout gasket installed correctly or is missing. Or worse, combustion gases are leaking thru a section of the boiler.
The condensation running down the flue pipe could be a sign the boiler is underfired, and/or is spending a long time condensing.
And more pictures will help us with your over pressure problem.
But in all reality, there's a 99.99% chance this isn't something you are going to be able to solve yourself.
And thanks to your burner on the wrong side, under a shelf, with no room to properly work on it tells me you have been getting it serviced properly over the years.

EBEBRATT-Ed

You need to call your oil supplier or someone for service. Could be a bad expansion tank or bad pressure reducing valve or leaking tankless coil

Steamhead

I think @Jamie Hall is right- your expansion tank is not working right. The water in your system expands as it is heated, and this tank is supposed to give it a place to go. If it doesn't, the system pressure will rise beyond safe limits, and the safety valve will open and dump water into your bucket.

From the sticker on your boiler, it looks like you are in or near CT. If you go here-

https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/

you should be able to find someone who can straighten this out for you. It doesn't list anyone in CT, but there are plenty in neighboring MA and RI.

Mrnobody8605

I'm hoping these photos will be more helpful. And thank you all for your knowledge ph

mattmia2

That leaking automatic air vent needs attention too, which is good, because I was afraid you had some sort of flue condensation problem.

That gray cylinder is the expansion tank. If you knock/tap on it, does it sound like it is full of water?

Mrnobody8605

Sorry for the set up in that room. The shelves where already placed in there before I moved in. I've been in this house for about a little less than 4 years but the area in that room is very small and tightly packed

pecmsg

24" to the front is still too little. Should be 36" minimum.

HomerJSmith

Does the water drip all the time or only when the boiler is operating or gush out of the discharge pipe after a heating cycle? It seems to me that the water is dripping all the time. What does the boiler gauge say the temp and the pressure is, when the boiler is running and when the boiler cools down? Does the boiler gauge show more than 220 deg when the boiler is running.

What ever you do you need to replace the Pressure Relief Valve, 30# is standard.

What it could be:

The boiler fill valve is leaky and need replacing. The boiler gauge will read close to 30 psi when the boiler is cold or over 30 psi when water is coming out the relief tube.

The Expansion Tank is water logged (shake it, is it sluggish?). Does it need an air charge to bring the bladder up to 15 psi. Does water come out the schrader valve on the bottom of the tank, if so replace the tank. Hint: Unscrew the blue cap on the bottom of the tank and depress the tire valve (water or no water?)

A worn out and leaky Boiler Pressure Relief Valve.

Mrnobody8605

I did tap the tank. I was told the top half should sound full and the bottom half should sound hollow. The whole tank sounds the same as if it is all full. It seems to spit out water whenever the boiler turns on 

Jamie Hall

Which makes me suspect that the tank has lost its charge. Then the question is -- has it just lost the charge, or is it shot? If you get water out of the Schrader valve, it's definitely shot. If not -- there's air there -- you can use a tire pressure gauge to measure the pressure in the tank. With the system cold, it should be somewhere around 15 psi.