Steam Heat Gone Crazy

L Kroll

My story starts with a small leak somewhere in my steam heat boiler. A small amount of water was dripping on the pilot light and eventually extinguishing it. Someone came to look at it last night and added Rectorseal's Sealmaster into the boiler. Now the whole system (it is a one-pipe system) has gone crazy. The boiler itself is overfilling and I have had to keep draining it. The pipes are knocking incredibly loud and no heat is getting to 4 of the 6 radiators that were working perfectly prior to the addition of the chemicals to the boiler. Once I drain the boiler, the knocking stops, but I have to drain it every few hours and I still have no heat in a majority of the house. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks

Mike T., Swampeast MO

You've given EVERY symptom of an EXTREMELY dirty boiler.

The real steam pros here will let you know if this is correct, but the "Sealmaster" was probably the worst thing that could have been used in a steam boiler.

Maybe you can clean the boiler and it won't continue to leak but I rather doubt it...

Check "Find a Contractor" here for someone in your area who actually understands steam--not someone who dumps a foreign substance (probably LOTS of it and quite oily to boot) into a steam boiler and leaves... They probably wouldn't have a clue about properly piping a new steam boiler anyway and would consider the instructions "packing material".

Earthfire

flooding

You have water coming in . Either the auto feeder or a manual valve have developed a leak and or the combination low water cutoff feeder control may be stuck and calling for makeup water. Stop leak in a steam boiler is just a emergency stop gap till the new boiler comes in and can be replaced. REPLACE that wornout leaker now. And have somebody that will at the minimum follow manufacturers instructions do the install. The instructions are the bare minimum specs to make it operate properly. Use the Find a Professional link & if in northeastern Pa. feel free to contact us.

Unknown

Stop leak compounds

Stop leak compounds are a substance that when installed in a boiler flow towoard a leak and fill the space that is causing the leak.

Stop leak compounds will attatch themselves to linkages and other moving parts causing floats linkages to freeze or attach to valve seats and plungers.

What probably happened heare is the auto feeder has a deposit of stop leak on the seat, plunger or linkage and as a result the feeder leaks slightly.

When stop leak is installed into a boiler the boiler is to be run (not make steam) until the leak stops, then the boiler and return lines must be drained and refilled with freah water.

You can do this several times until the leak stops.

This is only an emergency fix, it is not perminant.

The low water cut out and water feeder must be cleaned to assure they work properly.

In most cases the water feeder should be left off line and the boiler hand filled until a section, sections of the boiler or the boiler is replaced.

Jake

David_8

Dirty boiler - I agree

I was just told to repair or replace my boiler. It overfilled and leaked water, like what you are going through. I didn't know about flushing it out until now, and we've lived in the house for seven years. While I'm shopping around for a contractor, I have turned off the automatic water feed and I'm checking the water level tube daily. I emptied many many gallons of water out through a valve on the side (at the advice of a repair person) before the water level was even low enough to see a level in the tube. A week or two ago, I posted here asking about repair or replace, and most replies thought replacing the boiler would be best. I'm now looking for a good contractor (north suburb of Detroit) to advise on what boiler would best meet our needs rather than just replacing with the same thing. We also have forced air heat/ac for an addition on our 1928 house that is heating the entire house just fine while we look around.

BillW@honeywell

Use the \"Find A Contractor\" feature

Steve Ebels might be in your neighborhood, I think his company is "Golden Rule Plumbing & Heating". May be others, check it out.