Bad Pressuretrol or Bad Pressure Gauge?

skimmer · January 6

Hits almost 8 before shutting off on pressure. Im going to check the pigtail and the nipple leading up to the gauge tomorrow.

What do you think it could be?

neilc · January 6

a wider view of the pigtail and gage as they connect back to the boiler , , ,

does the gage return to 0 when the boiler is off?

#pigtail, it's always the pigtail

skimmer · January 6

Yes it always returns to zero

neilc · January 6

still betting on the pigtail, and the port back into the boiler,

skimmer · January 6

I'll find out soon enough..

Jamie Hall · January 6

Those 0 to 30 gauges…

ethicalpaul · January 6

It can be more than one. Get a new low pressure gauge, clean the pigtail, then you'll know

Long Beach Ed · January 6

Should be interesting. Toss a coin. Pressuretrols are notoriously inaccurate but so are cheap gauges. Your gauge is an older, used gauge, so it may be better quality than new ones. Gauges nearly never read high when they fail, unless they're not returning to zero. Pigtails always clog, but steel ones clog more often than brass ones, and yours is brass.

My guess is the pressuretrol is wacky, but that's only a guess. It's a newer snap-switch Mexican model, not known for accuracy or precision.

Is all h*ll breaking loose upstairs? Whistling vents, dripping water, knocking? Eight pounds can do that.

neilc · January 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1832305#Comment_1832305

more than one, , , ,

check the gage port also

skimmer · January 6

I plan installing a used vaporstat I got.. 0 to 4 lbs..

the gauge was something i picked up on ebay 2 months ago, it never went that high.. but i did adjust the pressuretrol settings recently.. the differential . maybe they dont make em like they used too

at least the vaporstat is mercury

skimmer · January 6

well I checked the pigtail and it was clean. Snaked out the pressure gauge pipe. It felt clean too

Placed the vapor stat and waiting to see. However it’s not level. I’m wonder how to fix. Maybe I can shim it? There’s some space under it

Jamie Hall · January 6

A mercury vapourstat MUST be level. The whole calibration depends on it! Worse, it looks to me as though the curl of the pigtail is parallel to the front of the vapourstat?

You need to redo the pigtail so the curl is perpendicular to the front of the vapourstat. That way, when the pigtail expands (it will) it doesn't throw the vapourstat off level left to right (front to back isn't critical). Then, where the pigtail threads into the boiler, you can just adjust it so that the vapourstat is level.

skimmer · January 6

oh I see. Front to back. The pressuretrol was installed like that but it wasn’t mercury so I just followed the same orientation

skimmer · January 6

Oh btw, it was the pressuretrol. this one runs and shuts down much quicker and my gauge doesnt even register.

ethicalpaul · January 6

If after realigning the pigtail it still isn't level, you can rotate the fitting that the pigtail is connected to. You will probably have to remove the top gauge glass fitting to do so without breaking the glass, be careful. That's assuming the gauge glass fitting is connected to that brass fitting that is at the bottom of your picture. I can't tell for sure.

skimmer · January 6

yes I redid it. Flipped the pigtail and it was almost level. I added a plastic shim bc it was hair off. Now it’s all good

One difference is now I have much lower run times. More cycles though.

It seems the old ptrol was out of wack. Running at high pressure.

So idk what is going on now. I put in a 0-3 gauge that I thought had stopped working last year and it goes up to 0,5 before cutting out.

The vaporstat set at 1.5 with .05 differential.

I don’t know if it’s the gauge or the vaporstat. I have another gauge coming in the mail tomorrow.

I’m not sure if the commas mean anything

ethicalpaul · January 6

The vaporstat set at 1.5 with .05 differential.

Watch your units. That’s a 12 oz (0.75 psi) diff. Probably fine but yeah

commas are decimal points in Europe where your gauge was made

skimmer · January 6

Oh right, I misread it. I also raised the pressure to 3 to test and gauge only hit 0.9, so i think i have a bad gauge.

So i put the 0 to 30 back on to test and it went to 3 before cutting out.

ethicalpaul · January 6

It's a pity it's bad. A swiss-made gauge is usually trustworthy I would think

Bad Pressuretrol or Bad Pressure Gauge?

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