Dirty boiler water, high consumption and questionable hot water piping

MKE_steam

I live in a 100 year old house with one pipe steam and radiators, fired with a modern natural gas boiler (maybe ten years old). It's a Crown Boiler, BJ series.

The water is very dirty. I can get it to flush clear water eventually but it's a good amount of water that has to come out, and it's almost immediately dirty later that week so it doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to have to do every few days.

Besides the occasional flushing above, the water consumption is very high. I'm at 24 gallons in the last year, so basically one regular midwest heating season.

I've been in the house five years and I think the first few years it was maybe 5 gallons a year, but the last two years have been in the 20s.

Maybe there are some tiny leaks in the system but nothing noticeable over the five years i've lived here that would explain the jump in consumption from years 3 to 4.

Here's the special circumstance though that makes me think things took a bad turn. We had our basement finished and the contractor INSTALLED HOT WATER BASEBOARD HEATING IN THE BASEMENT AND RAN PIPING FROM THE STEAM BOILER BELOW THE WATER LINE TO SEND HOT WATER TO THE BASEBOARD HEATERS ON A SEPARATE THERMOSTAT. I questioned the contractor and the heating guys who installed it and they said it's a normal thing to do, but in hindsight I don't think they knew (or cared) they were working on a one pipe steam system.

I only ran the steam-and-hot-water system a few times before shutting off the valves for hot water part and unhooking the basement thermostat. It doesn't make any sense. The basement thermostat would signal heat and the boiler would fire up and the pump would send hot water to the baseboards, but also steam was being made and that would heat the upstairs, too.

So, I'm trying to figure out on this forum how to start the diagnosis. My plan is to fill the boiler up to the feed pipe to test for leaks within the boiler, and then perform a full boiler flush, followed by some skimming. Are those the correct steps? Should I even bother with those things given the situation and just call someone?

I have a terrible time finding anyone to work on residential steam. All of the HVAC folks say they can work on steam but each one who's come here can pretty much only check the gas/electrical part of the boiler and has no idea about the system as a whole. It's always 'we have an old guy who knows about steam and i'll ask him when i get back to the shop' but I never hear back.

ethicalpaul

You have a leak, of water or steam, either in the boiler itself, or somewhere else in the system.

And that leak is exacerbating your dirty water because all the replacement water that you add has a lot of oxygen in it which then increases oxidation in your boiler. Don't bother draining and skimming and all that until you have found the leak.

The hot water loop was fine (and almost definitely has nothing to do with your leak--unless it's leaking LOL), but they should have used an aquastat so that when the basement loop is calling for heat, the boiler shuts off before it gets to boiling.

You are right, you need a steam professional, or alternatively, you could learn enough to address all this, but it's a lot to learn, but you can do it if you want to (I did).

What part of the country are you in? Have you tried "find a contractor" on this site?

hadeone

When you are making steam heat do you hear hissing from the radiators? Do you see any wetness / moisture around the radiators? Check the air vents on each radiator for water. When they go bad they let steam out and that could be where your water is going. These may seem like small leaks but it adds up.

You should also trace your return piping and look for leaks there. Is any part of it underground? It could have sprung a leak that you don't see.

Do you see any evidence of a leak at or around your boiler? Do you see steam outside, coming out of your chimney? That could mean the boiler itself has a hole in it and is sending steam up the chimney.

Your plan seems like a good start but you'd need to fill the boiler up all the way, past the top of the sightglass and approximately to the start of your steam supply piping, to make sure the whole boiler is full of water. Then check to see any water leaks out on to the ground. It shouldn't. The boiler is off while you do this BTW.

The baseboards using the boiler water is normal as I've recently learned but you have another point of possible leakage. You said you have those valves off and it still loses water? Otherwise the leak could be in the baseboard loop but you'd see that on the floor in the basement usually.

MKE_steam

It's good to hear the hot water baseboards are ok. I'll double check about the aquastat. I just remember steam coming upstairs when the basement thermostat was prompted.

We do have hissing radiators, there might be an on/off valve that has a small steam leak, and no underground returns. Do i call a plumber for working on radiator piping/valves?

Maybe my check list now is:
- fill boiler and check for leaks
- clean radiator vents with hot vinegar/water
- check for pipe leaks
- call a plumber for any pipe leaks?

hadeone

I'm guessing you haven't done this kind of work before you won't want to change radiator valves or piping on your own. Make sure all of your valves are fully open. That small leak may let out a lot of water especially if your boiler is set to a higher pressure. The recommendation is to set your pressure to as low as possible.

Air vents are easy to work with, I would replace them but cleaning may work too.