Water flowing out of vent

edot44

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hi all we have a one pipe steam system, older house but boiler about 10years old always maintained runs great. We had to repipe recently just portion coming from boiler to mains which had always been copper (I know it’s not right) since then have this happening to our one radiator in kitchen area. Changed vent but not sure what else to do

ethicalpaul

It is almost 100% certain that your boiler is "surging" which is where water from the boiler is thrown into the mains and up to the radiators. I guess it could also be overfilled. Check the water level when not firing, then watch the water level during a call for heat and see if the level drops dramatically in the gauge glass.

It's not the vent's fault, even though that vent does suck.

Did the installer skim the boiler to remove oils from the boiler water? New pipe comes with oil and oil will cause surging.

You can refer to my collection of youtube videos in my signature below where I show what surging looks like

edot44

thank you paul for the response. The installer did not skim the boiler after. Such a hard time finding vendors who k ow what to do with steam. When I check your suggestion if it is drastically falling in the gauge glass anything I can do myself to remedy?

ethicalpaul

If the level is normal when it's not firing, and then it drops dramatically (like more than 2" or even all the way to the bottom), then the only reliable fix is to skim it. You can google "steam boiler skimming" to find videos of this process. It's not difficult, but it's a lot easier for contractors to do it because they have the tools and they should have the knowledge (even if they are sometimes lacking on the latter)

If you send some pictures of the boiler from like 6 feet away from all sides, we can tell you if there is a skim tapping installed on it.

If it doesn't, the product called Squick can help with oil in the boiler (I have tested it, it does work), but to me, that's a last resort. Even just adding something to the boiler can be difficult depending on how it is piped and what kind of boiler it is.

edot44

thank you again, Here are the photos (I don’t have too much room down there)

EzzyT

Yes Definitely hasn’t been skimmed plus show some pictures of the new near boiler re-piping.

I did give you an estimate to repipe it but clearly had someone else do it who doesn’t know what they are doing.

ethicalpaul

Ezzy spoke plainly above and he's probably not wrong. It must be really frustrating for a contractor to submit a bid knowing how to do it right, then have another contractor be chosen who does it wrong, but that is how things often go.

Anyway, your skim tapping I believe is visible here, to the right of the upper gauge glass valve, behind those three cables. It still has the factory plug in it, as seen in photo below, so it's probably not been used.

It's possible that someone may have skimmed it at installation via this tapping down here, but that wouldn't be optimal and is total conjecture on my part.

edot44

Appreciate the feedback, I can assure you it's. equally if not more frustrating to me, As much as I would have like to do as suggested, I just wasn't able to do that at this time. Again appreciate the help.