Boiler surging

Steamhead

to "Skim" that boiler.

If there is a film of oil on top of the water, it won't boil properly and in some cases may drain the glass. You may have gotten most of the dirt with TSP, but either there was some oil remaining in the boiler sections or it's coming back thru the return piping. Skimming gets rid of that oil film and lets the water boil as it should.

Detailed instructions can be found in your boiler operating manual or in Dan's "The Lost Art of Steam Heating". You can download the manual from Weil-McLain's site

www.weil-mclain.com

and order Lost Art on the Books and More page of this site. W-M boilers have gaskets at the section joints so you must not use any chemicals in your boiler that W-M doesn't approve of.

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Bentleyfam25

Boiler surging -- low water cutoff cycling

Maybe a few of the experts on here can advise -- I've got a one-pipe residential Weil-Maclean system that drains the guage glass when it fires up, triggering the low water cutoff. I've TSP'd the system and used a ph-balancing chemical designed for the purpose. System water is clean and return lines are unclogged. Water level acts as if the steam pressure building up in the boiler is forcing the water back past the hartford loop, since that's the only direction is can go, I think. After a few early-cutoff cycles, as the system gradually heats up, the water level settles down and the systems works well.

Two thoughts come to me: (a) is there a cutoff with a delay setting to it, or (b) do I need a surge column? If a surge column makes sense, how do I build one (need a picture of some kind). Why would the water be forced backwards out of the boiler by steam pressure? Anything else I'm missing?

Thanks in advance --

Mark Eatherton1

3 words...

TURN IT DOWN!!

Turn the operating pressure as low as it will go. If you can, set the pressure trol for 1 pound, and the differential for 1/2 pound. Let us know if that takes care of the problem.

Alternatively, you could hire an expert to install a vapor trol that operates in ounces of pressure insted of pounds of pressure.

G'Luck!


ME