Adding boiler water through steam vent opening

stevenknaub

are there any concerns about adding boiler water by removing a radiator steam vent and adding water through the 1/8” NPT tapping?
Could this crack the radiator when hot?

Could this cause other problems?

pecmsg

why?

Jamie Hall

Indeed, why. And yes it could cause other problems, like overfilling the boiler because you weren't there to see what was happening.

Mad Dog_2

Unless you have nefarious ideas like the Bldg Super many years back that Dan wrote about...Ha ha Mad Dog

Mad Dog_2

Aside from that, you'll be trying to fill a swimming pool through a straw...Mad Dog

ethicalpaul

Put some fittings on your skim tapping, or I have seen fittings added below the PRV to allow adding stuff.

stevenknaub

I was asked why?

Answer: because I have a camera trained on the sight glass and monitor the water level remotely. I don’t routinely go to the basement and no longer have access through the inside of the home.

So, is it harmful, or is it not harmful?

Thank you!

Long Beach Ed

Not harmful.

Will just take a long time. That's a small hole.

Would probably wait for the system to be less than hot. Fill slowly to avoid overfilling due to the time lag of the water finding its way to the boiler and showing on your camera.

Consider a Hydrolevel VXT automatic fill valve with a low water cutoff. It will generally maintain your boiler water level and you will never have to go into your basement again.

STEAM DOCTOR

Good possibility that bottom of radiator has sludge in it. There is a possibility you will dislodge that sludge and it could end up in places where you don't want it. Also, there is a very real possibility that you will overfill the boiler. You're going to have to do this super slowly. And screwing and unscrewing the air vent frequently, could damage the threads on the radiator. With seriously consider another solution if possible.

pecmsg

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1841851#Comment_1841851

do you own this building and the boiler?

What happens when something else goes wrong and it needs service?

Jamie Hall

Interesting problem, and certainly not idea.

I would not use the radiator vent. What I would do depends a little on just how idiot proof I want the setup to be.

Step one, of course, is to install a reliable automatic water feeder. They exist.

The simplest approach is your camera and a remotely controlled "manual" fill valve bypassing the automatic water feeder.

Another quite feasible approach is to install a fill pipe from the cold return to some location which you can access. The fill point will have to be at the boiler water line plus 28 inches for each psig that the boiler is set to cut out at. It does not have to be freeze proof — there will be no water in it except when you come by with your teapot. It does have to be big enough to have acceptable gravity flow rates to the boiler, though, and it should — perhaps obviously — have a pipe cap on it. You still need that camera to see what you are doing…

Those are the best workarounds I can think of at the moment…