Help for Homeowner

Josh_3

I recently ordered Dan's "We got steam heat" book from this site. I live in a house built in the 1920's and we have a one pipe steam system. Last winter, our first in the house, there was a lot of water hammer noises and the 2nd floor was either very cold or unbearably hot. My wife found this site, and I ordered the book as the weather is getting cold again.

I found some quick solutions so far. First, I noticed about half of the supply valves were half-way open. So I either opened them all the way or closed them all the way. Second, I bought some insulation for the downstairs pipes I will hopefully be installing this weekend. Third, I made sure the air vents were properly on the radiators (don't want to go into what I discovered, someone clearly as clueless as me lived here before without the benefit of Dan's book).

Next I checked the pressuretrol. Someone set it to 3 psi on the cut-in and I adjusted it back down to .5 per recommendation from the book. I opened up the pressuretrol and found the differential to be properly set to 1 (something done right, yeah!). Our pigtail is apparently facing the wrong way btw, but I'm not going to touch that.

Which comes to my glass gauge and water level. I'm stumped. I located the glass gauge. However, it is either totally full or completely empty, and I can not honestly tell which (If There is water in there, water is clear isn't it?).

Also I have two ways to "bleed" water from the system. One of them is a hose coming from a pipe (I believe it is the return pipe) that I can manually release. The other is a faucet on the side of the boiler. While running, I drained the one that seems to come from the return pipe. Sure enough, the automatic water feeder kicked in after I did that. There is also a faucet that is literally on the side of the boiler. I thought this might be the blow-down valve Dan spoke of in his book. I put a bucket underneath, and let out approx one quart of water (man was it filthy). However, I noticed the glass gauge did not move at all. My first thought was to let more water out, or manually pump more water into the system, but I thought I had better come here first just in case.

Up to now all the suggestions in the book have worked great, but I'm stumped at this point about properly flushing, and of course about that gauge. What should my next step be?

I noticed there are mostly professionals on this board, so I appreciate any suggestions for this homeowner.

Thank You

JimGPE_3

A hint

If you want to tell if your sight glass is empty or full, stick a pencil behind it, on a 45 degree angle from vertical. If the pencil looks okay, the sight glass is empty. If the pencil looks "broken" and the part behind the glass is skewed from the rest of it and/or magnified, the glass is full.

Unknown

I would locate that water lever first

It would be easier to drain water out of the boiler to find the level . If the level is low there shouldn't be too much in there . It beats filling the boiler up so far the mains get full . The way you describe the water in the boiler , I'd say water in the glass would be dirty too .

Make sure the valves to the glass are open also . Any chance you could take some digital pics and post them here ? It would be alot easier to help us diagnose your situation .

Josh_3

Took me a little while to get the Digital Camera up and running.

Four Pics. First is from the side, where you can see the hose on the bottom coming out of the return pipe. Second is the faucet on the side of the Boiler. Third is where the glass gauge is set up, fourth is a closeup of the glass gauge. There are two levers, one of top, the other on the bottom of the glass gauge. Each are turned to "open".

By the way, I did the pencil test (Thanks for that), the gauge is definitely FULL
Per Ron's suggestion, should I use one of the valves to empty all the water out of the system totally? Which one, and how much water? THanks Again

tommyoil

Dump the water from the boiler until you see a visible water level in the glass. Your system will hammer like mad when overfilled. Use the drain w/ the hose on it. That will be fine.

Josh_3

Alright now I'm a little nervous. I drained that hose, waiting for the water level to change. It never did, and eventually the water coming out of the hose began to trickle much slower. I stopped before it stopped! I've turned the thermostat all the way down now, I don't want the boiler firing if there is no water in there. Suggestions? If I need to pump water back in, and the glass gauge "appears" to not be functioning, how do I know when I have enough?

Roger_5

You drained the return main

It looks like you drained the return line and not the boiler your want the drain found in PIC 2 to get the water out of the boiler. BTY you have a low water cut off to prevent the burner from running but not a bad idea to shut down the burner while you drain out the unit.

Josh_3

I drained about 2-3 gallons out of the boiler. Should I keep going? Again the gauge hasn't moved. Im suspecting something is really wrong with the gauge, since the water in the gauge is near perfect and the water coming out of the boiler is fairly dirty.

Roger_5

Are the valves to teh gauge glass open???

If the valves to the gauge glass are closed you won't see the change in the level. It is not a bad thing to totaly drain the system from time to time so let it all go and see what happens.

Josh_3

Finally

Ok I drained out the boiler. The glass at first did not move. I started wondering if there really WAS water in there. I tapped on the top of the gauge, lightly. I saw some sediment drip down the tube, so I knew there was indeed water in there. After the boiler emptied, I continued tapping on the gauge (LIGHTLY) and more sediment fell. Eventually, after about 3 minutes, the water level in the gauge, finally, and slowly, began to fall. I suspect perhaps there is a clog in the bottom of this gauge. Like I said, there was A LOT of filth in the water, and there was a lot of it as I tapped on the gauge.

So two questions remain:
(1) Is loosening the bottom of the gauge and trying to clean it out something that I, just a homeowner, should be attempting...and...
(2) Regardless of #1, How should I go about putting water back in that boiler.

Thanks again for all the great help
-josh

tommyoil

Makes no difference which drain valve you use

I really think that your boiler was just way overfilled. I dont think its a bottom gauge glass valve issue at all. In some instances I have spent 20 minutes draining overfilled boilers to the tune of 50 or 60 gallons.Not saying it cant be partially plugged, it can. It sounds more like your boiler drain is partially plugged if the water is just trickling out. The fact that you drained the boiler from the hose connected to the returns is a NON-ISSUE. Weather you drain from there or the boiler drain in the back, the water will still drain out. Do not be mis-lead. The water coming out of the hose is the same water coming out of the drain in the back of the unit. If you want to drain faster, open both at the same time. The only difference is when the water level gets to the hartford loop level in the return drain, water will stop coming out of the hose, thus preventing the boiler from draining completely. If you need to drain the boiler completely, use the valve in the back of the unit. To add water, use the boiler feed valve connected to the copper (I'm assuming) water line to the proper level in the glass and SHUT IT OFF when its where you want it. If it( the boiler) fills up by itself over time, your feed valve is no good and should be replaced.

Jim_44

glass guage

I work in a school with plenty of gauge glasses of different lengths. One of our regular maintenance tasks is to clear the guage glass of water from the bottom try-cock so sediment does not build up which leads to false water level readings. The more sediment you have in your water the more likely this might happen. Clearing the sight (guage) glass on your own when the boiler is off line might be something you can do on your own. Jim

tommyoil

Yes

Agreed.

Josh_3

Thank You

I almost forgot to come back and thanks everyone for helping me out here. My Steam Heater is slowly improving in my home. Trying to tackle the problems one by one, but our family is seeing an improvement with each thing. Thanks to everyone who responded, this is a great place to get some quality help and I greatly appreciate it.

Constantin

Another neat idea

... while you're taking the gauge apart is to add a small plastic ball to the gauge. We have them in our basement steam boiler gauges and they help a lot in determining where the water levels are (assuming the gauge is not filled with crud). I asked my heating contractor about those balls and he replied that they used to be super popular but that they can be hard to come by these days. Any sources out there?

Also consider calling up Rhomar for a water treatment option for your boiler. They seem to have lots of options and they might have a custom-tailored solution for your system issues.