Water level anomaly

ddog777

I have a 15-year-old weil mclain , one pipe system with manual water feed, that makes great steam. I've been noticing that the water level in the gauge glass actually increases after several cycles. Is this even possible? I would suspect the fill valve (ball valve) might be leaking through, but the level was constant through the entire summer shutdown. Another steam system mystery, any thoughts??

ethicalpaul

are you sure it’s not lowering during the first cycle then taking a long time to recover back, making it look like the level is rising?

ddog777

it lowers when it starts to steam, but at the end of the cycle and beyond, in a steady state, it exceeds the fill mark I placed on the boiler with a sharpie

ethicalpaul

I don’t have an explanation but maybe you can sell the extra created water

neilc

same as water expands in a heating boiler, that same water expands in the steamer,

might be hard to say now in heating season, but if boiler cools off enough, doesn't the level drop back down to your fill line

Long Beach Ed

Here's what to check: Leaking manual feed valve, leaking automatic feeder valve, hanging float in automatic feeder/low water cutoff, malfunctioning or improperly set electronic low water cutoff/feeder, Improperly installed low water cutoff/feeder, leaking wet return, leaking domestic hot water coil (if equipped).

A properly piped boiler will have unions on each of these which can be opened to check them.

How much higher does it fill after steaming?

109A_5

From Google AI.

Thermal expansion:

When water is heated, its molecules move faster and spread out, increasing its volume. For example, water expands by about 4% when heated from room temperature to its boiling point.