Steam Bolier problems; bad water hammering, end radiators cold

Edwin Chan

Hello, looking for help. We have an old steam boiler system that we're looking to change in a few months. We're looking for a way to use it for a short time. We're having some problems now but I'll back up slightly to give more background. We're renovating soon and a week ago we had the asbestos insulation removed on the pipes for permit issues. Now, since then, a few days have passed and now this is what happened:
-Came home the other night and the bolier looked like it had no water. There was none in the glass tube and it smelled like the boiler was just burning without water.
-We turned it off, and started filling the water back up in the system.
-Then the boiler itself started leaking. We stopped the system for the night.
-The next day, we tried some Stop Leak (oatmeal) which seemed to work. The boiler didn't leak anymore.
-But, then we noticed a lot of water hammer in the system. A lot going on towards the end of the cycle once it built up steam pressure.
-We noticed the end radiators were not getting hot but the ones closer were really hot.
-Lastly, we looked in the water tube and the water level is higher than the tube itself and the water is really rusty and dirty.

These are our symptoms. Does anyone have any thoughts on causes? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you.
-Edwin

Dana

First off when you remove the insulation from the boiler and piping you dramatically change the way a staem system gets the steam to the radiators. Secondly, is the boiler leaking because its cracked or is the system just flooded. If you cannot see a waterline in the site glass, it could be because there is no water in the system or it could be that the system is full beyond the top of the sight glass and your just seeing water. This would also explain to some degree the banging and the radiators nearer the boiler getting hot. I would suggest shutting the boiler off. Draining all the water out of the boiler, re-fill to the correct line on the sight glass and then re-starting. This sounds to me like your in way over your head and you should get someone who knows steam systems out before you do something to the system that cannot be repaired. If you added water to a hot cast iron boiler you probably cracked it, and thats why it leaks.

ta finnegan

Ah the wonders of steam.

It sounds like alot of problems. That's just it, there could be many causes of what you are describing.

I like to see the systems in order to properly diagnose. I agree with the previous contributor. Get someone who knows what they are doing with steam.

Maintenance & cleaning, piping, boiler sizing. That's the usual order of progression and in order of increasing costs to complete.

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