piping for auto water feed to steam boiler

Charlie_3

I have a steam boiler, with a low water cutoff and an automatic water feed (residential system).
Two questions:
(1) The LWCO manufacturer says to flush the LWCO weekly. Is that amount of fresh water harmful to the boiler? It takes me about 30 seconds to flush out the rusty water.
(2) What if I supply the automatic water feed with hot water? Is it better? Is there a reason not to?
Thanks,
Charlie.

gehring

I am not a pro, so I am also interesed to hear what the others officially have to say, but my understanding of the LWCO is you don't need to run it for 30 seconds until the water is completely clean...only let out enough to ensure the float chamber is not sludged up, etc. just drain out a little. I believe the constant introduction of fresh water to the boiler is harmful over time which is why I switched to a probe style LWCO instead of a float type so I no longer need to performe the routine flushing. As for the hot water...my understanding is that hot water has more harmful minerals in it than cold water which could, over time, gum up your autofeed. I was advised against an autofeed altogether because it could mask a leak in your system by constantly keeping the sight glass full (even though water is trickling out through a leaky fitting somewhere) I prefer to manually feed my boiler if it ever needs any water (which is rarely) that way it forces me to walk down into the basement every few days to see what is going on.

lchmb

Mr Gehring I hope your steam system has the hartford loop built into it if you removed the auto feeder...although a auto feeder could mask a small leak it far outway's the chance taken from having a closed system. Boiler's as standard have water feed's....As to introducing water into a steam system, unless you have a serious issue with your water people have been doing this for along time. Flushing the lwco is good for the system and nice to hear that you take good care of your system, just a hint..very gently tap on the lwco now and then to help break any sludge loose that has built up in the bottom of the well...Don't think you'll have a problem for a long time to come..

gehring

Yes. I have a Hartford loop. Thanks.

Climate Creator

LWCO

I tell my customers with mechanical cut-offs to turn up the thermosat so it is running then do the flush to verify the cutoff is working properly. If you can drain that boiler to the water line and it doesnt shut off then you need to call someone. But usually they sense the drop and shut off quickly. EVERY steam boiler looses water because it is an open system. They will loose some to venting, not much mind you but some. I am glad to hear you are going to flush every week, it is in your and your boilers best interest. I usually find the opposite, no one does it and then they complain when you need to replace the switch or float or even the whole cutoff.

Keep flushing
CC

Charlie_3

OK. So how about piping hot water into the water feed? Will this help to minimize oxygenated water into the boiler? Or is it a waste of time?
Thanks,
Charlie.

gerry gill

i pipe mine with hot water,

some folks dispute this, but when i ask whats in hot water thats not in cold i get no answer..an old timer around here taught us to use hot water, as some of his hot water feeders are thirty years old and still working fine..he's eighty so thirty years doesn't seem like much to him..he offers great reasons for doing it with hot..the electronic units are also rated for hot water temperature..so unless someone can cough up some real science behind not doing so, i will continue to use hot water...his reasons are that alot of the minerals have precipitated out in the water heater, (sediment) and there is less chance of thermal shock, and there is less dissolved gas in hot water due to henry's law.

Robert O'Connor_6

Yep

Dan wrote an article a while ago about this in process boiler applications. Said pretty much what you did Gerry.


Regards,

Robert