steamboiler

Unknown

The 120 volt low water cutoff supplied on our oil-fired steam boilers should be activating a 120 volt feeder....preferably one with PIN switches to match the feed rate and delay. Hope this helps.

Glenn Stanton

Burnham Corp.

scott32

steam boiler flooding

I have a Burnum steam boiler with a Honeyell 110v probe type l.w.c.o. and a Mac Mill wf2-24 auto feeder the problem is that the system overfills occasionaly the neer boilar piping is exactly as man. specs. no clogged returns. If i were to drain the boiler and call for heat the burner will shut off at the proper piont and appx. 60 sec. later the feeder will begin to fill the burner will fire up a few sec. later and the feeder will continue to fill for appx 60 sec. perfect right? wrong!!! sometimes the feeder keeps filling until the homeowner comes down to shut it off and drain the boiler. something hanging up feeder? wrong! removes strainer and flushed nothing in feeder or the piping.I removed the l.w.c.o. probe and cleaned looks o.k. Iflushed the boiler and added 1/2 can steam clean . I then began to notice a what i thought to be an odd way to wire this feeder. The l.w.c.o (110v) powers up a 24v transformer to power the feeder Looks strange to me can these two controls work together properly? My thought is that during a l.w. situation the feeder is caused to be called on and during its 60 sec fill time the thermostat becomes satified and shuts off causing the feeder to be in the on position ANY thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Steamhead

That feeder

should have a 3-wire cable going to it- the usual hot and neutral from the main 24-volt transformer, and a "switch leg" wire from the LWCO to activate the feeder timer, which controls the valve in the feeder. Since the LWCO is a 120-volt unit whose "switch leg" output feeds a transformer you probably only have 2 wires going to the feeder, which can cause it to misbehave.

Replace the 24-volt feeder with a 120-volt unit and wire it per the wiring diagram that comes with it. I'll bet this solves your problem.

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Unknown

Do you need

the 3rd direct hot wire for the feeder to perform properly ? I thought that wire was only needed if you used the push button to manually fill the boiler ? We use the 120 volt version , but we dont run the direct power wire because we install a bypass on the piping itself . I tried holding that button to fill a big steam boiler , and it was a pain .

What about adding another transformer to directly power terminal 3 on the feeder ? Probably cheaper and easier than buying a 120 volt feeder ?

My guess on the overfill situation is - if the LWCO is wired properly , and powers the tranformer for the feeder only when theres low water , it might be a bad LWCO on the alarm / feeder terminal .

Steamhead

You might be right

I always thought the third wire was needed for the timer to work properly. But I always wire them 3-wire, per the manual and have never, ever had problems with one.

I've seen 24-volt 101A feeders fed thru transformers from 120-volt #67 LWCOs many times, but they're a completely different and much simpler unit.

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Unknown

I would not attempt

to use the 120 volt LWCO to activate the 24 volt feeder Ron. If it is the Hydrolevel CG450 LWCO there are no dry contacts to be able to switch 24 volts seperately. The high limit burner circuit is 120 volts on our oil-fired boilers. Change it to a 120 volt feeder to be safe. Hope this helps.

Glenn

Unknown

I agree

a 120 volt LWCO should match voltages with the feeder . But what could happen if you powered a transformer from the alarm/feeder terminal of a probe LWCO ? A few times in the past , when the parts were shipped to us wrong , we had to power a 24 volt feeder from a 120 volt 67 LWCO using a transformer .

Unknown

The newer types

of water feeders require constant power to maintain their memoery for cycling. Some have the ability to feed and wait for a period and feed again if they did not satisfy the required water level the first or second time. This is probably the case with this one. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently Hydrolevel has a feeder out there now with a built in water metering device. Great idea! Hope this helps.

Glenn