Pilot light goes out when weather changes?

steamismyfriend

I have a one pipe steam system, gas boiler with a pilot light. I’ve noticed something odd—when the weather changes rapidly, the pilot light will go out. It seems to happen when the weather swings from cold to warm (like this week we went from 30s to almost 60 in one day). I assume there’s some sort of down draft that happens under specific conditions that blows it out? The pilot light has recently been serviced and all of the various parts are up to date. Is there any way to stop this from happening?

Big Ed_4

Spark box , if the pilot flame drops out it will start sparking to relight flame ..

HVACNUT

How was the pilot light recently serviced? Was only the pilot light serviced? Because there was an issue with the pilot light before it was serviced?

What make and model boiler? Pics? Standing pilot or spark pilot? Did anyone mention millivolts when servicing the pilot light?

steamismyfriend

Re why it was serviced: a heating contractor/plumber removed the electric pilot in favor of a standing pilot—it solved some issues I was having with the boiler flooding during the summer months when it was off. But now it seems to have created a new set of issues. No one mentioned millivolts. In fact I can’t get anyone who can figure out the wiring on this thing. (In my early days of owning the house, someone tried to install a different kind of thermostat and got half way through the process and quit because they couldn’t figure out how to finish the wiring part (that’s why you see all of these hanging wires).

boiler is Lennox

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I inherited this system with the house when I bought it and it has been so awful trying to find someone knowledgeable to service it who doesn’t try to convince me to rip it out and start over—Which, believe me, with all the annoying things I’ve had happen with this thing, I’d love to do but I can’t really afford doing at this moment.

HVACNUT

Well, since it was converted to standing pilot, the vent damper was disconnected and left open. Of course with no power at the damper, it NEEDS to be left open.

I'd like to see ignition and draft numbers.

I can't follow the full control circuit. I lose it behind the Low Water Cut Off. Where are you located? IMO, everything should be put back to factory specs and tested for combustion and draft. Running and idle readings on draft.

We can't see the steam piping itself too well, so if it is also wrong, then a steam pro you need. And do not get any estimates from anyone who touched that boiler and left it like that.

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1832696#Comment_1832696

You can see enough of the steam piping to tell it isn't right. It might still work ok that way but someone hooked the new boiler up to the header from an old, much physically larger boiler instead of building a proper header for that boiler. You can also see that they reduce the header in the horizontal to connect to the equalizer so it can't drain properly.

pedmec

You need to hire a real professional. That boiler has been chopped to pieces electrically. And it looks like you might have a problem with the heat exchanger like its spilling out. the gas pipe when I zoomed in looked like it had soot all over it.

steamismyfriend

Thank you all so so so much! I cannot tell you how hard it has been to find someone qualified to service this system. Yes, it has been chopped apart—many different "pros" who claim steam expertise show up and do something different claiming that is the issue and, despite reading everything I can and SOMETIMES being able to call BS, that's really hard when someone claims to be an expert and claims to have a solution to a problem.

I like the idea of returning it to factory settings. The bad news is that where I live, the closest "steam pro" (per this site's listings) is hours away from here. Probably off the topic of this thread but wondering if you have any suggestions for how to quickly assess steam competence so that I can move someone along before letting them touch the thing. Thankfully I have heat but because I've educated myself, I can see all the things that are wrong but I really don't have the skills (or the confidence) to start trying to fix this myself.

Edited to add: I'm in South Western PA :)

BobC

Yp assess a contractors ability you have to understand how steam systems work. The easiest wat is to buy and read "the Lost Art of Steam Heat" by Dan Holohan despite it's thickness it's an easy read because of his writing style.

steamismyfriend

thank you, I have it and have read it. What happens often is that someone will come in and tell me “oh, this is what’s wrong…” with such confidence that it really isn’t possible to call them out in the moment. I guess it is just a matter of taking time to research every diagnosis that I get!

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1833191#Comment_1833191

Even with an experienced steam pro there is a certain amount of guessing which of the things that are wrong is causing the problem or if it is a combination of them. That actually would be a good sign if they tell you these things are wrong but I think this is causing your problem so we should try this first but we might need to do these other things too.