White smoke from chimney

holograham

read a lot about steam from chimney exhaust. Here is a video of mine.

I don’t have an auto feeder. I am now starting to monitor how much water I put in. It’s a manual valve and I typically blow down 5 seconds of sludge each week. I didn’t pay attention to how much I refilled.

it’s a gas steam boiler and large house (6000+ sq feet). Boiler is oversized (1600 vs 1100 edr).

Any recos on how to approach this? Since it’s a manual valve I don’t have a way to measure exactly how many gallons I replace.

https://youtube.com/shorts/sRjagdNqR_k?feature=shared

Steamhead

Do you have to fill it between blowdowns?

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1841664#Comment_1841664

No - but since I am doing it 1x a week I may have been adding water without knowing.

I wont blow down for a few weeks and I visually know where my water guage is.

I guess my question is what is best to monitor?

Jamie Hall

The sight gauge is your friend. First place, it's kind of useful for safety. Second place — it will tell you if you use too much.

How much is too much? Some systems use a gallon or more a week. Some systems — Cedric, the big guy I mostly care for — simple doesn't use any…

tcassano87

if you have steam coming out of the chimney your boiler is most likely cracked, and most likely in the upper portion. Fill the boiler above the site glass, Look inside the by the burners seen if you notice any water dripping

ChrisJ

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/200470/white-smoke-from-chimney

What was the temperature outside when you recorded that video?

There's not very much there, if it's cold enough out there's a good chance that's completely normal.

retiredguy

If you are firing fuel,oil, you can sometimes get a white smoke with a very lean fire. This is not usual but it can happen. That said, a cracked boiler is usually the culprit.

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1841709#Comment_1841709

it was below freezing in the video. Probably 28-29 degrees

holograham

I get this - what is “too much” and since I just have a manual fill valve I don’t really know how to measure it. I know exactly where the fill guage was as of yesterday and today I see no visual change. Boiler is big so perhaps even a 1 gallon drop won’t change much in the guage visually?

holograham

This is a gas boiler.

if it’s a cracked boiler but working well otherwise is there any issue with just continuing to use it?

EBEBRATT-Ed

@holograham

Just stop the blowdown for a while as you suggested above. Keep your eye on the sight glass.

Natural gas contains water vapor so when it is cold out you will see water vapor leaving the chimney.

We are not that far from spring. Just keep your eye on it

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1841805#Comment_1841805

Thanks - that is my plan - day 1 and no visible change to water level (I set it to a level that is in line with a sticker edge so I have a frame of reference.

EdTheHeaterMan

Are you Catholic? You have a new Pope

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1841805#Comment_1841805

So one week of stopping blowdowns - the water in the sight glass moved down maybe an inch or a little less. So system is definitely losing water but not a crazy amount.

It's been cold so the boiler was working pretty regularly each day.

I did find 2 ventrite's that were spitting water each cycle. Not a ton though but probably produced a tiny puddle the size of a quarter each cycle. So losing some water each cycle that way but its a small amount. There are no other obvious leaks I could find.

Unsure how to gauge a 1 inch drop in sight glass level to amount of water lost in gallons.

Jamie Hall

Remember that one drop of water every ten seconds is a gallon per day. Those two Ventrites are probably close to that, if not more. Check all your vents — there may be others which are leaking steam but not making puddles…

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1843048#Comment_1843048

I found another gorton that definitely leaks some steam at the end of a cycle (when the pressure builds up). I dont know much to do about that given my boiler is a bit oversized and I dont have a vaperstat - my pressuretrol is as low as it goes basically.

Jamie Hall

Vents should not leak steam… in an ideal world, anyway.

I'd start at this point by relaxing a little — it's probably not the boiler at this point — and replacing vents which leak but use quality vents — Gortons or Maid O Mist would be my preferences.

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1843052#Comment_1843052

Thanks - just a bit nervous for the cracked boiler situation

Dave in QCA

A gas steam boiler will show steamy vapor coming out the chimney. If the weather is very cold it will be much more visible. Also, high humidity conditions, such as when its over cast, foggy, or on the edge of precipitation will make the vapor much more visible. One thing about the vapor/steam that comes out of the chimney that are actual products of combustion, you will notice that the steam of fog dissipates quite quickly. If you have TRUE white smoke, that is to say, steam escaping from the boiler and going up the chimney along with the normal combustion output, you will notice that the fog holds together and the trail, like a jet trail in the sky, will hold together 2 or 3 times longer, maybe even more, that what you would normally expect to see.

holograham

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1843319#Comment_1843319

Love this and what I needed to hear (and it makes sense based on my research thus far).

It's a bit odd how many answers are immediately a cracked boiler given that gas combustion does produce water vapor.

At this point I am pretty confident it is not a cracked boiler and I am just losing some water to my vents each cycle.