Steam Boiler not Functioning Properly

Cyclone33

Hi All, my steam boiler had been working fine now all of a sudden it's not maintaining temperature in the house and seems to be cycling on and off alot.

Below you can see my vapostat settings. Damper seems to open and boiler fire when it gets to 12oz/in2 then gauge needle goes to max. Then it just seems to repeat this every few minutes.

I have 4 gorton vents on the main.

Im in Iowa so not alot of boiler expertise here. Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

Jamie Hall

This is much shorter cycling than you have had before? I wouldn't blame the messengers — the vapourstat and the gauge — however. Does steam seem to get anywhere in the system? Or does it shut off before steam starts to get into the system? Are there any valves anywhere on the steam side which might have gotten changed?

Cyclone33

It seems like shorter cycling but i dont know that for sure. What is usually expected?

Steam seems to be going to the radiators but they arent getting near as hot as they used to.

No valves or anything have been changed recently

AdmiralYoda

Assuming the vaporstat and gauge are operating correctly…it sounds like you are building pressure too quick and shutting down before the radiators get warm. I wonder if your radiator vents are not operating correctly or are partially plugged.

For an experiment take the air vent off of a couple radiators and let the system fire up. Does it run longer before shutting off on pressure? Does the radiator get hotter? Does hot steam eventually start shooting out the radiator vent?

Cyclone33

I have a trane vapor system setup on most my radiators. I could take a plug out of one?