steam boiler

duke1

there is a steam boiler in a church that is leaking between one of the sections
do you think it is possible to repair the leak using boiler seal

Jamie Hall

Once in a while it works. For a short time. But it's time for the church to figure out how to raise enough cash to replace it. Sorry about that.

duke1

thats what i figured just trying to buy some time
thanks for your comment

EdTheHeaterMan

How old is the boiler? Does the manufacturer still have sections in stock? Since replacing the boiler will most certainly involve taking the old boiler apart a section at a time, when you get to the leaking section, perhaps you can just replace that section and put the old one back together. May be less expensive.

Also, I would try the boiler sealant in order to get thru the winter or to at least get a few months more out of that ole' gal until the decision can be made on who and what job will be done.

I offered two different Churches the same choices
A. One large replacement boiler.
B. Two smaller boilers that will operate in stages as the outdoor temperatures got lower

Once Church selected the one boiler Job
The other Church selected the two boiler Job.

Funny how things happen. Did not have a church boiler job in 10 years, then all of a sudden there were two in one year. After that, no church boiler replacements, but several new church customers signed up for annual maintenance.

I guess the Good Lord wanted me to be the Church Boiler Company that year.
Can I hear an AMEN?

ethicalpaul

Which is the better choice, Ed? One or two?

EdTheHeaterMan

When it comes to Water, I believe that two large residential boilers will be more efficient than one commercial boiler. There are several reasons. The first is the whole concept of sizing for the actual load is more efficient than having the oversized boiler for 90% of the heating season. If you have a boiler sized for 60% of the design load, then it is much closer to the correct size for most of the operating season. You will get to that constant operation or at least very long operating cycles for more of the heating season. Only for the 40% of the heating season that one boiler can’t handle the load will the second boiler operate. I wired the system for the second boiler to kick in automatically when the outdoor temperature reached a specific outdoor temperature. Simple basic logic easy to follow. I also had a switch that would change boiler A to be the lead boiler for the even years, and boiler B to be the lead in the odd years.

The second feature is that there is a built-in backup system if one of the boilers has a failure. I could keep the place protected from a freeze up by switching the operating boiler to be the lead boiler until I had time to repair the boiler that was down.

There are some less expensive control systems now available that can automatically do the auto lead-lag boiler switching and also have automatic second boiler operation based on demand as opposed to just an arbitrary outdoor temperature. But at the time those controls were more expensive with more features than I required for the job of this particular church. So with these new controls systems are another reason to choose two smaller boilers over one large boiler.

Steam boilers, maybe not so much. But the choice to offer two steamers to this particular church was easy because there were three zone valves on the old boiler. Two 4” valves feed the large Church wing and the large auditorium wing. A third 2” valve feeds a smaller Chapel. Finally, there was the bathrooms and two business offices that were on one of the large zones, so when the Pastor or the Secretarywas there working during the week, the large auditorium zone needed to be heated in order to heat those two offices.

The 2 boiler system would work out great because I could size one of the boilers for the largest zone EDR, the other boiler could handle the balance of the system if all 4 (yea, I added a loop of base board for the offices) Zones were calling for heat at once. This was the church that selected the one commercial boiler job, so I never needed to design a control system for 2 boilers. I did however install the optional water baseboard loop to heat the offices and bathrooms. This was a big savings, because they were able to set back the temperature on the three large steam zones. The baseboard heat was piped off of a tankless coil on the steamer. That worked great with a L4006A limit control set at 170°F in the coil aquastat tapping.

Intplm.

duke1 said:

there is a steam boiler in a church that is leaking between one of the sections
do you think it is possible to repair the leak using boiler seal

I have had mixed results with the boiler seal used directly on the leaking radiator.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I have used it in the same scenario you have described. "To buy some time".
It's worth a try. Hope it gets you through the cold months.

duke1

the boiler believe it or not is only 8 years old
weil mclean 10 section
i guess no maintenance

Ironman

duke1 said:

the boiler believe it or not is only 8 years old weil mclean 10 section i guess no maintenance

You’ve probably got a leak(s) on the system and too much fresh makeup water is being put into the boiler. Fresh water being constantly added will rot a boiler quickly. 

 
W/M uses O rings to seal between the sections, so boiler sealant may not be effective, but it’s worth a shot.

realliveplumber

duke1 said:

the boiler believe it or not is only 8 years old
weil mclean 10 section
i guess no maintenance

I believe it. We have had 2 10 year boilers leak between the sections this year. And another ultra with a rotted out heat exchanger.

Their quality is racing to the bottom.

ethicalpaul

duke1 said:

the boiler believe it or not is only 8 years old
weil mclean 10 section
i guess no maintenance

We believe it

Steamhead

@duke1 , what model Weil-McLain?

Jamie Hall

duke1 said:

the boiler believe it or not is only 8 years old
weil mclean 10 section
i guess no maintenance

Take a look-see when you take it apart. If it's a -80 series, you may find that one of the o-rings got twisted (they aren't round like most o-rings -- they have a square cross section) when it was installed. That's not going to help you with the leak, but at least you will know what happened...

duke1

its model1080

EdTheHeaterMan

That boiler is still the current model. If a section is cracked, there may be some warranty left. If the O ring Gasket that others have mentioned, then it is just an expensive repair with some new gaskets (O-Rings)