Capitol Steam Boiler

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Every now and then I get a call to service a steam heating problem. This one was a flooded boiler that probably over filled because someone was messing around with the manual fill valve.

I drained the boiler completely and checked the LWCO for continuity before and after it was drained just to make sure it was working properly and it was. Dropped the operating Pressuretrol from 2.5 psi to .5 psi.

I believe that this is the original boiler from when the house was built in 1919. I love the old stuff!

Steamhead

According to some of my Dead Men's Books, that boiler is about 40% efficient...........

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Now that I'm back in the office looking at the pictures, I see that the pressuretrol has a subtractive differential. When I adjusted the setting down to .5 psi, shouldn't the boiler have turned off with the differential set to 1?

Jamie Hall

Better check the wiring on those two pressure controls. The pressuretrol is subtractive, as you note -- and while the boiler may have turned on, once it turned off on that pressuretrol, it shouldn't restart.

Of considerably more concern to me, however, is the mercury switch pressuretrol appears to be in the off position in the picture -- and the boiler shouldn't be able to run at all. That one is, I think, manual reset.

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

Thanks, Jamie. Good eye on that high limit. That picture was taken before I drained the boiler and before I reset the high limit.

EBEBRATT-Ed

To me in the picture the main is set at 2 1/2 or so and the diff is 1 it should CO @ 2 2/1 back on a 1 1/2.

Must be good if it lasted this long