Suddenly wet steam?

TwoTones

I have one pipe steam, weil
McClain boiler from 1995.   The bottom valve on my site glass had a small leak so I hired a  plumber to clean the boiler and rebuild site glass.   On the old glass the water level never fluctuated and there was never any condensation on the top of the glass.  After the installation I noticed condensation and slight water level fluctuation.  Also a little white foam.  Could he have dirtied the boiler water somehow?  Do I have wet steam now or possibly always had wet steam? New and old glass, new is obviously red valves…

   I should also mention I have a main vent that is stuck open and wanted to replace behind a wall.   He tried with torch, large wrenches, hammer blows and cannot get this vent off.  I think it’s leaking pressure worse now so maybe that is contributing to my problem?  He want me to rip out a wall
panel so he can put a pipe on his wrench for more leverage.  

TwoTones

Closer pic, boiler not firing 

ethicalpaul

Anything’s possible—are you set up with a skim port?

the main vent situation isn’t good but is not related to this in my mind but definitely fix it asap. Yes open the wall

TwoTones

Yes there is a skim port, why would boiler need to be skimmed after just a site glass install all of a sudden?

ethicalpaul

you tell me 😅 or ask your guy what he did.

I have no knowledge of your water situation either before or after your guy worked on it.

but if you’re telling me you have suds coming down your gauge glass, I’m going to tell you to skim it.

TwoTones

Plumber says that old sight glass was clogged and now I am getting an accurate image of what is actually happening in the boiler now.  Any tips for reducing wet steam or is this a near boiler piping setup issue?

ethicalpaul

I'd have to see your boiler and piping to make a judgment about that. But the waterfall in your gauge glass would be not related to the near boiler piping to my mind and I'd skim it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Skim it. Is the water level bouncing more than an inch or so? Violently bouncing or slowly bouncing?

mattmia2

If they put a torch on the steam main that could have loosened up all sorts of stuff in the main. Might have used some sort of penetrating oil that got in the system too. Isn't the element in the vent filled with wax?

TwoTones

He is replacing a convector for me also but he didn’t install it yet. He used a lot of penetrating oil
on the supply valve to try and loosen and a bunch on that main vent that won’t come off.  He also torched both a few times with MAP gas. The vent is right above the wet return.  Thinking maybe he loosened some crap which got back to the boiler along with the penetrating oil.    

ChrisJ

If it's behaving well and not being annoying I'd ignore it for a while until the install is done and things get washed out good. If it starts having issues skim it before then but you'll likely need to do it again a month from now, or even next season.

TwoTones

Boiler seems to be running normal.  I won’t truly know until the main vent gets fixed.  Will wait until all the work is done and see if it needs a skim after.   I am assuming a brand new 60” convector and new piping may introduce more oils to system…

ChrisJ

TwoTones said:

Boiler seems to be running normal.  I won’t truly know until the main vent gets fixed.  Will wait until all the work is done and see if it needs a skim after.   I am assuming a brand new 60” convector and new piping may introduce more oils to system…

You'll know when it's too much.
It'll keep tripping the LWCO from the water being blown up into the mains.

JUGHNE

Hammering, heating and maybe oil put "stuff" into the water.

But also you now have different "new" water in the boiler, that may be a factor.
(Different water chemistry)

I would wait awhile after things are done and then skim.