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Alternatives to Using a Wand to wash out a boiler when empty?

cubicacres
cubicacres Member Posts: 358
edited June 2022 in Strictly Steam
Now that we replaced the 3/4" leaking drain valve with a 1" ball valve, if we don't make & use a wand like in Mr. Gill's video to wash out our WMC EG75 boiler now that it's empty & before we fill it for the summer (we'll add a steamaster tablet & run it for 10-15 minutes to dissolve some oxygen before we fill it to the top of the gauge glass or a bit higher for summer storage to minimize corrosion lines), are other alternatives recommended?

While the wand method looks very effective to clean out the dirt & oils, until we have a good hose connected to the drain valve, we're hesitant about putting all those gallons of water in the boiler room floor. We could raise the water level to the drain using the water feeder & cold skim from that new 1" drain valve, or bypass the water feeder & let the city water pressure into the boiler if that would push out more mud in the bottom, or something else you'd recommend?

And are all the methods mentioned above that use cold water to flush considered a variation of the cold skim method we do occasionally on the top skim port, but using different tools or ports?

Comments

  • Danny Scully
    Danny Scully Member Posts: 1,416
    I wand with a low bucket and a sump pump in it (pumping elsewhere into a drain or outside). Maybe try configuring that? 
    Canucker
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,583
    I put a short bucket under the drain when I use a wand on mine and dump it before it's too full to tip and move.

    Half of my floor is dirt so I can't really just let it run out. Doing that with a floor that's mainly clay would be a bad day.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
    PC7060