Can't Raise Pressure in Gauge

Dave Meers

OK, I know I have a dog of a system. I didn't understand steam when I moved in in May...only knew that I was getting hot water from the boiler and that was ok. Now comes November and I am interested...

Got a copy of "Lost Art" and started to look at the dog. Horrible near piping, more piping than necessary, no Hartford loop, three "zones" of main steam each with its own return, poor slopes, main vents on the end of dry return (not the 15") and on and on and on. Yesterday I was getting 27lbs of pressure on the boiler gage with a 15lb safety valve! Go figure. Any way, I pulled the gage, pressuretrol and pigtail and discovered (shock!) there was rust and corrosion in the piping. Cleaned it out, replaced the gage(with a 0-15), adjusted the Pressuretrol to .5 and 1 diff (from 2 and 2), put it all back together and ran it. 2hrs later, I still cannot get .5psi out of it. I walked around my 2.5 story house and closed all of the radiator valves, effectively taking them out of the system and still could not get the gage to move. There is no insulation on the piping.
I am now fearful of a cracked boiler. What would be the next best test for problems and just how long should it take to raise any pressure in a home steam system? There are 13 radiators, but as I said I shut all the valves to take them out of the equation.

Robert O'Connor_6

Is it heating?

I take care of a few systems that never generate any measurable preessure but are heating,

Regards

Robert

ME

Madghost

Is thier a crown valve on the boiler? to test for a crack in the simplest way fill the boiler with city water capping off the condensate line and closing the crown valve. (dont fill to execess of 10psi) if the pressure holds for any givin amount of time thier isnt a problem with the tube bundle if a leak is present this test will pinpoint the tube and depending on the boiler model you may be able to simply take that one tube out of operation.

Or try using a new guage if you havent already.

Dave Meers

Can't Raise Pressure

Yes, the boiler produces steam and I can get it to all of the radiators. And even that doesn't take too long to do. I guess the reason I'm even asking the questions is that the whole point of the Pressuretrol is to limit the pressure developed to only the minimum amount to move the steam so as not to spend more money developing more steam (and burning more fuel) than necessary. I know I need to insulate the pipes, but I just wanted to know if the boiler is also a problem.

Dave Meers

Yes, the boiler produces steam and I can get it to all of the radiators. And even that doesn't take too long to do. I guess the reason I'm even asking the questions is that the whole point of the Pressuretrol is to limit the pressure developed to only the minimum amount to move the steam so as not to spend more money developing more steam (and burning more fuel) than necessary. I know I need to insulate the pipes, but I just wanted to know if the boiler is also a problem.

Bill_39

if it's heating

don't worry about it