Are Boilers Dangerous? This months column

RayWohlfarth

In this months column for PHCPPros, I dispel the thoughts that boilers are dangerous. The only reason they are dangerous is due to human help or lack thereof. Hope you like it.

https://www.phcppros.com/articles/22670-are-boilers-dangerous

EBEBRATT-Ed

I went on a job the last year before I retired. One of the few times a boiler scared me. I have posted this before so maybe you have heard this story. If so sorry for the repeat.

But for me I will never forget this one. I think about it once in a while.

2,500000 btu Burnham gas boiler 15 psi steam. Customer said it was ok but the burner was noisy, I got to the job and began setting up my analyzer. Steam pressure was 10psi, normal it was a process job. I came out to the front of the boiler and the steam was 25 psi!!!

My first thought was "what the ——!! Then I thought bad gauge. Shut it down and got a gauge out of the truck. No the steam was 25 psi.

Safety valve corroded shut

Manual reset safety pigtail plugged

steam operating control pigtail plugged.

I often wonder what would have happened 20 min later if I wasn't there? What if I stopped for coffee? Would the boiler have gone through the roof like in the old days? Would people have been killed? Or would it have gotten to 50psi and the safety valve finally opened?

And the one that really bothers me. How could this boiler have operated all day with no issue maintaining 10 psi and modulating and I walk in the door and all of a sudden 3 things fail?

No, I think it went like this.

Safety valve corrodes shut.

Manual reset limit pigtail plugs up

I walk in the door and the operating control pig tail says I have had enough.

Steam boilers in MA get inspected every year,

I think I saved the insurance company a million dollars and their boiler inspector still has a job. I think I am lucky I wasn't 20 min later I may not be around.

Mad Dog_2

Chilling Ed...your Guardian Angel was with you. Lord knows how many people would have been killed and maimed....Mad Dog

Intplm.

A very good story to share. And it should be shared often.

Unfortunately I have seen the results of a steam explosion. Thankfully no one was hurt. The damage however was extensive.

Boiler annual maintenance and a proper preventative maintenance scheduling is an easy thing to do. Most often all one needs to do is read the boiler manufacturers directions on boiler up keep. A simple preventive maintenance or (PM) schedule needs to be developed and followed. This would show documented proof that the (PM) is being practiced.

The article suggested doing the PM on a Monday or Friday. I liked to stay away from Mondays or Fridays favoring Tuesdays or Wednesdays. I did this simply because weekend issues usually come up that can be delayed for those days.

retiredguy

Before I retired in 2007. I felt as safe in a boiler room as I did in my own bed at night, where the equipment was well maintained. For boilers that were not maintained properly I, on many occasions, was scared to death. In my 40+years as a service tech I saw cast iron boilers melt their sections, blow apart from a fuel explosion, fire tube boilers melt their fire tubes, stay bolts and even their tube sheets. A few friends told me that I should have written a book on my experiences in boiler rooms but that is not my forte. I have seen so much BS and short cutting that I am glad that I am now retired.

One such problem boiler room was in a building with 2 high pressure Keeler or Erie City Water Tube boilers firing Nat Gas where the chief engineer had his maintenance crew remove the guts from an old 3" General Controls Diaphragm gas valve that quit working and the stationary engineer had to manually open and close that valve for every on/off cycle.

Another problem was at a Pgh public school where the low water cutoff was jumped and the steel fire tube boiler dry fired and began to melt.

There were a lot of these but even with all the problems I saw I still felt very safe in a well maintained boiler room regardless of the boiler's size , the type of fuel burned or the working pressure.

I think that I "cheated death" on a few of the jobs but boy did I enjoy the work.