Best Practices - Fall Start Up and Spring Shut Down

Fishin_Rod

I am a homeowner with a two pipe steam radiator system (from 1918) and a newer boiler (Dunkirk Model 400).

I have read many of the "Help" items on the website side along with the articles in the "Basics", like Mr. Holohan's excellent primer.

However, I don't see a topic for start up and shut downs under the Systems Help Center for Steam Heating. I also did not see a good primer on system maintenance best practices.

When I used the search function for "start up" or "fall start up", or the equivalent for spring shut downs, I could only find threads on specific troubleshooting topics.

I feel like a teenager that knows how to drive and put gas in the car. However, some teens do NOT know that you also have to perform oil and filter changes, or you can trash a very expensive investment just from a lack of knowledge.

I am trying not to be "that guy" on my steam heating system and boiler.

Unfortunately, I believe I do have to turn my maintenance into a DIY problem. I live in Kansas, and "old" homes here are not nearly as old as on the East Coast. I have zero guys for hire that know much more than I do, because they are all HVAC people for forced air systems or the new hydronic systems in cement slabs (that are becoming popular here), or they are plumbers.

Does anyone know of a good primer on annual maintenance or best practices for the fall start up and the spring shut down? If there is not a good single resource, is there an old thread in the discussion section from the early years of the forum that people have added onto with more replies over the years?

If so, I would appreciate the guidance!

I do learn something from essentially every single thread that I do read on the forum. However, I will never be a steam system "expert" (or even an apprentice)! I just want to know enough about my own system to do basic good maintenance and then be able to properly frame a question when I do need help from the forum experts on specific trouble-shooting problems.

Thanks, Fishin Rod

Jamie Hall

Kansas is a bit of an empty area for steam heating…

I'm not sure myself that there is a good "standard practice" for residential and small commercial steam heating systems for shut down in the spring or startup in the fall — at least mostly because the systems are so varied, and what suits one may be inapplicable or even impossible on another one.

Start up in the fall is the simpler of the two, since the objective is to be certain that the system runs correctly and is safe. This is mostly making sure that the boiler is itself clean and the burner properly adjusted (it's nice if this is done annually in the summer, but that isn't always possible and it's not the end of the world if it doesn't happen), then making sure that the water level is correct, that fuel is available, and that all the safety devices (pressure controls, water level cutoffs, any flame or draught sensors) are in place and correct (they should be, if someone hasn't gotten creative over the summer) — and turning it on. Best to observe the first few cycles to double check.

Shut down has more differences of opinion — and they involve water level. There is one school of thought which suggests raising the boiler water level to near the top and running it to drive of the oxygen which just got put in. There's another which says leave it alone. It's also a good time to review the operation over the year and make note of what might need to be improved or repaired — and then do that over the summer.

Some folks recommend flushing the boiler completely and putting in all new water and, of course, bringing up to full steam and leaving it there for a while. Others don't feel that that is necessary.

And, of course, all of that is moot if the boiler is also making domestic hot water! Then it will just keep percing all summer, just not as hard.