Automatic water feeder that won’t fail in on position
Was looking for a Automatic water feeder that won’t fail in on position. This is a steam boiler in a duplex of mine. Nobody has access to basement except for me so it failed the other week @ 4am and got a call from tenants. Luckily I got over there before it flooded the whole house. So yeah looking for a feeder that’s more reliable, otherwise I have to go over their every other week to fill the water back up to the 3/4 mark.
Comments
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Hydrolevel VXT. Regular maintenance. The maintenance kit comes with the VXT
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But nothing is infallible.
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is there anything else I can add with this to provide some extra piece of mind for me
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You did not say what type you have.
Folks here seem to like the Hydrolevel VXT. To me they all can fail, there is too many reasons an Automatic water feeder unit can fail and flood the boiler. The valve could stick open or leak, the electrical switch or electronics could fail. Some have timers too, but depending what fails the timer may be useless.
If you have a probe type LWCO, the lack of maintenance or the electronics could fail commanding the feeder to fill the boiler indefinitely. If it is a float type LWCO the float can leak and sink.
How did yours fail ??? What type do you have ?
If you just want to deal with the Automatic water feeder you could pipe two in series with a common electrical trigger. Chances are they both won't fail at the same time.
There is a thread here on HH that someone modified a LWCO to act as a high limit (I can't find it so far). I don't recall how it stopped the water flow.
Another backup plan is a Normally Open contact type pressuretrol (like the ones on eBay that nobody wants) and a Normally Open Magnetic valve. At 56 inches (2 PSI of water pressure above the pressuretrol) the pressuretrol's switch would close, energizing the Magnetic valve, closing its valve cutting off the water flow. If the normal pressuretrol trips at 1.5 PSI there will be no heat anyway stimulating an investigation.
There is many ways, how reliable, only time will tell.
National - U.S. Gas Boiler 45+ Years Old
Steam 300 SQ. FT. - EDR 347
One Pipe System0 -
I don’t know how far away it is from you…maybe you could discount rent to a tenant to do it.
I think any auto feed lets the water level be too low for too long, harming efficiency and letting the castings get too hot
You also lose visibility into your water usage. Yes the vxt has a display but you won’t be there to see the use increase
NJ Steam Homeowner.
Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el0 -
The question is — what failed, or could fail? The feeder? Or the switch that controls the feeder? You have to address both potential failures, and the water level sensor (whether float or probe) is just as likely to fail as the feeder valve is to stick open.
The idea of two feeders in series, triggered by the same trigger, has merit, as it reduces (does not eliminate) the chance of the feeder failing open. It does nothing to address the problem of the probe or float failing on. Better would be to add another trigger (preferably of a different type) in addition to the two you have (I hope you have two, one manual, if this is a rental/commercial properly?) and use that to control the second feeder. All of the three sensors would also be low level cutoffs for the boiler as well, of course.
Better yet is regular maintenance and attendance on the equipment…
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
I am not sure if it was mentioned, but you could install a high water cutoff. In your case this could be wired to an "emergency" normally open solenoid valve installed on the feedwater to the boiler. This normally open valve would only close in the event of the boiler (piping above boiler actually) overfilling. We have installed these on commercial boilers.
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Steam boilers should be checked daily! The more you add the more there is to fail.
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We've seen many of these. Some insurance policies offer premium credits for this sort of application.
We also like the VXT feeder, as it contains a strainer and is easily serviced and rebuilt every five or ten years. But as 109A_5 says, the electronics can always fail…
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is there any high water cutoffs that you recommend in particular? That’s a great idea!
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the electronics on it failed. My Maintinance guy had just cleaned the probe a few weeks before this happened
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cg400-2090 is what was on there. The electronics had failed on it
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We have used this model and the float types from McConnell Miller
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OK…. Isn't the cg400-2090 A LWCO (Low Water Cut Off), not an auto feeder ? " cg400-2090 is what was on there. "
So the LWCO actually failed ?
What is your Auto feeder ?
National - U.S. Gas Boiler 45+ Years Old
Steam 300 SQ. FT. - EDR 347
One Pipe System0 -
it was a lower water cutoff & a automatic water feeder combined
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here’s a photo of what it looks like
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Looks like someone just added a mag valve (solenoid valve) to the CG400 LWCO. The instructions clearly states not to do it that way, it "may cause flooding".
National - U.S. Gas Boiler 45+ Years Old
Steam 300 SQ. FT. - EDR 347
One Pipe System
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No wonder you had a problem.
Redo it correctly.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
oh wow did not know this. We just acquired this duplex about 6 months ago so still learning. Thanks so much!
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I suspect the relay inside the CG400 LWCO is not rated for the load of a solenoid coil and eventually the relay's contacts weld closed causing constant water feeding. Comparably the VXT Auto feeder's Feed Signal input load is probably quite small and non inductive.
National - U.S. Gas Boiler 45+ Years Old
Steam 300 SQ. FT. - EDR 347
One Pipe System1
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