DIY Boiler Installation -- Peerless 63-03

mattmich

It's time for another update. I've enjoyed the process even if it seems overlong, and I hope this thread with all the bumps and delays is useful for someone else down the line.

#1 Skimming

After another 10 or so days had passed, the boiler was surging again, with ~2.5 gallons of water going skyward. Friday night I tested a hypothesis of mine — more like a suspicion — and found it confirmed: most of the effect of skimming occurs early. I filled half a Homer bucket with overflow, dumped another half bucket out the drain and out the [recently installed] drain valve of the wet return, and ran the boiler again.

Sure enough, the water level in the glass bounced up and down less than before — maybe 1/2" total movement — and the average drop in the water line was a little over a gallon late in the cycle. I don't think it's ever been less.

What this says about skimming is that there's no point in dragging it out for hours, and that adding detergent won't help. It's the oil slowly leeching out of the piping that's making the boiler surge, and that'll stop when it's all washed out. Probably three Christmases from now is what it feels like. It's an easy process, and it's slowly getting better.

Most importantly, we had a nasty cold spell and stayed comfortable throughout.

mattmich

#2 Fuel Consumption

This was more of a lark than anything. I snapped a picture on two mornings before going to work.

By my math, we used 870 scf = standard cubic feet, and given there's roughly 1,000 BTU in a standard cubic foot, and lowballing ab bit to account for the stove and the water heater, we can calculate how many hours the boiler actually ran. Input to the boiler is 118 MBTU meaning 118,000 BTU per hour, so it ran for 7 hours, meaning not quite 1/4 of the time. Which is about what I've been seeing; on for 40 minutes and off for not quite two hours.This math stuff really works, who'd'a thunk it.

This was a day that started at 10 F, crested 17, and went back down to 12 overnight. A bit of wind, too. I ride my bike to work, only 5 miles round trip, but believe me, I'm tuned in to the weather.

mattmich

#3 Insulation

I was inspired by an old thread (*) to buy thicker insulation for my near-boiler piping and carve it out, rather than use the standard one-inch thick material for the pipes and then work around the fittings. In the end, it'll probably be a combination of the two. It gets futzy around tight bends.

I'm encouraged by progress so far. Here are a few of pictures illustrating the process. A carpet knife is a useful tool for this. I'll probably finish with cheesecloth and mastic, and may use some standard 4" thick wall insulation to pad out the problem areas. It'll be interesting to see if there is a noticeable shortening of the startup time.

I'm doing all the carving-up outside of course. It was so cold that I waited until the afternoon when it warmed up to 31 degrees. It's been miserable. BTW the box that came from buyinsulationproductstore dot com was huge and put the shipping cost in perspective. This stuff ain't cheap but it appears well made and is worth it. Where it just snaps around the pipes it's a great fit, too.

(*) https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/151757/insulation-pics-using-mitered-joint-technique

ethicalpaul

washing powder certainly helps when used as directed—immediately after the install. It will greatly reduce the oil in the boiler.

But surging throws all the oil in the boiler up into the pipes where as you say the oil is protected from the washing, and will then make its way back to the boiler later.

EBEBRATT-Ed

One thing I find fault with on domestic boilers that unnecessarily causes difficulty piping is the insistence of "pitching the header" This is a crock of BS. and requires crooked piping or more swing joints than necessary. Yes swing joints are required. Pitching the header is not required

And I am not zeroing in on this post, this is about all posts in general.

The amount of water the header can hold when level is insignificant. A few drips down the risers back into the boiler does nothing. Think about what is going on.

I have never in my 46 years in the field seen a commercial boiler with a 6,8,10" header with the header pitched.

Skim the boiler use the right size header and risers (or oversize the risers which I am a fan of) keep the water INSIDE the boiler where it belongs. It does NOT belong in the header where the water can kill some steam

How many old boilers are in operation with no header, just two separate supply pipes coming out one to the front of the building and one to the rear of the building, no equalizer. The boiler had a large steam chest to make dry steam.

The newer boiler will as well if a decent design and proper maintenance and follow the MFG instructions which may or may not call for an unnecessary header pitch

Just my Sunday rant.