How to avoid this again? Rust hole above water line burnham in4

skimmer

How much to add to the in4? i think it holds 6.5 gallons.. Its pretty clean as i can tell via the sight glass..

draining near the bottom by the hartfood loop comes out a little muddy for a few seconds but i think thats expected.

ethicalpaul

draining near the bottom by the Hartfood loop comes out a little muddy for a few seconds but i think thats expected.

It's expected unless you increase your pH to 10 or so. Try like 1/2 cup and see how that does. 8-way comes with a built-in color indicator. Don't add as much as the instructions say, that's more than you need.

The IN4 does hold only 6.5 gallons. My smallest Peerless which is about 225 cu ft of steam I think is 9 gallons.

Burnham does have good things to say about fresh water (my emphasis):

When the fresh, cool make-up water is heated in the boiler, the minerals fall out as sediment, the salts coat the inside of the boiler, and the oxygen escapes as a gas. The accumulation of sediment eventually isolates the water from contacting the cast iron. When this happens the cast iron in that area gets extremely hot and eventually cracks. The presence of free oxygen or chloride slats in the boiler corrodes the cast iron from the inside. More make-up water and higher concentrations of contaminants damage the boiler sooner.

Note they do not say "boil the water after adding it". I think this is because they know it does not matter. Heating fresh water releases oxygen into the boiler interior regardless of when you heat it (unless you heat it before you add it, which very few people, such as me, are willing to do)

I am only adding distilled water to my boiler nowadays and that removes minerals, salts, chlorine, and other dissolved solids, and possibly contains less oxygen.

skimmer

So would you say to add the half a cup and leave it in? Or add it and run the boiler and drain out?

Long Beach Ed

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1830890#Comment_1830890

No, skimmer, the hot water loop didn't cause the water loss unless water is dripping out of it somewhere. I assume none of it's hidden and you can see the entire run of the loop.

ethicalpaul

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1830946#Comment_1830946

If your water is pretty clean you should be able to leave it in. If your water is really dirty you might have to drain it and reapply.

skimmer

@Long Beach Ed some of it is hidden behind a sheetrock wall as well as some of the return line.

I dont think any is leaking, i mean it could be i guess. A small leak in the return I guess is possible. I would imagine if it was it would be tiny as my water level would have dropped enough in one month to activate my water feeder?

Long Beach Ed

Usually a leak behind Sheetrock shows some evidence of moisture on the wall or floor. Steel return lines tend to leak at threaded elbows. Once it starts leaking, it grows worse in returns. Returns inside walls last better than those buried. Well-installed steel usually lasts more than 50 years before any problems. Copper is less likely to leak. I've never found a leaking condensate baseboard loop, probably because most are newer than the steel returns and are copper.

RTW

Dear OP

This link to another HH post on recent Burnam Boiler issues may interest you:

Burnham boiler failure — Heating Help: The Wall

All the best,

RTW

Danny Scully

Forgive me if this has been asked, but can you post a pic of the new install @skimmer ?