WIERD PROBLEM??

John Lasky

good morning,

many thanks to all of you and esp Dan for this very informative site.

I found this site while trying to figure out a problem with the steam system in my house.

my system is steam, 2 pipe baseboard (cast baseray) on the first floor and one pipe radiators on the second.

Ive been in the house 6 years and have never used 2 rooms upstairs untill this year (I had them shut off)

my boiler is 5 years old , HB Smith GB200 165,000.

my initial problem besides water hammer from a "war zone" in the whole house was the two rooms on the right side of the upstairs would not get any heat no matter what.

well thanks to this site I Found that the horizonal runout that feeds the riser to the two rooms in question had virtualy no pitch back to the main and was always flooded.
this section probably never worked right!!

to correct this I added a main vent on the end of the line and also added a drip for the riser into the wet return that exists for the 2 pipe baseboard and mains.

well those two rooms heat up just fine and all the water hammer Ive had for years is all gone for the most part , I get just a tad on start up on one of the real long base boards but its nothing like it use to be and it goes away within a miniute or so after start up

I also purchased a new preasure switch .5 -9 psi (old OEM was 3.5 -15) I am now running on 1.5 psi. I also cleaned the boiler ,all new vents, cleaned the sight glass ...

Now with all this good stuff I have one wierd thing happening. it seems like every few cycles where the boiler shuts down and everything gets nice and cool my sight glass is way full!

I was thinking I went into low water cutoff a few times but I shut the supply off and watched the sight glass for hours , my sight glass surges although not as bad since I cleaned the boiler and lowered my gas preasure but it never went out on low water.

while running the glass stays in a good range
now the wierd part.

ill look at the glass after the unit shuts off and cools before we go to work in the morning and the glass is full cant see a line.

now at other times the glass line is at 3/4 when cool.

when the glass is full ill get some water in the system at start up but it finds the returns and drains in a miunite or so though my upstairs farthest room (problem rooms)will take 20-25 mins to get hot vs 15 - 20 min normaly .

again things are working pretty darn good now !

this morning every thing heated up ok with the exception of the upstairs at the end of the line, as mentioned they took a few more mins as I could hear water running though the main and then through the last runout/riser and going down the drip I put in, but once it drained to the return all worked fine and the glass stays about half way during firing.

so is this a somwhat normal scenario that can be lived with or is it somthing wierd still??

many thanks "John"

Mark Walnicki_2

Bypass?

Is there a bypass piped around the LWCO? Maybe the valve is leaking by?

Steve_35

Seems like

you have partially plugged returns. If the water is higher sometimes than others is it possible the times when the water is higher in the sight glass the system has been of longer giving the water more time to return to the boiler?

Half full after the system has been operating for a while seems high.

But then I'm a newbie going to Dan's seminar Thursday seeking the path to enlightenment.

Steamhead

You might have a leaky feeder

Leave the water to the feeder shut off for a few days. Watch the water level carefully and make sure it doesn't get too low.

If the overfilling problem disppears when the feed water is shut off, replace the feeder valve.

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Unknown

Boiler Water Level

Before you spend money on repairs that may not be needed try this.

When the boiler is cold, drain some water out of the boiler.
Bring the water level of the boiler down to about 1" above the gauge the bottom packing nut at the gauge glass.

If you have an auto feeder shut the fill valve. Run the boiler on a weekend when you are home and watch the boiler's operation for that weekend.

If all is well (you may have add water if the system has leaks) and if you have an auto feeder reset the height of the auto feeder at that that level.

Typically when a boiler runs along time the operating boiler water drops and the feeder adds more water to the boiler. After several heating cycles you will find that the boiler has more water in it.

Often some boilers will fill up to about 3/4 full and that will be the normal standing water level when the boiler does not make steam.

If the boiler is full of water and starts steaming boiler water will pushed into the steam main, thats no good.

Jake

John Lasky

MANY THANKS

good morning,

many thanks for the replies.

I think ill do everything you all mentioned.

first ill flush the returns as I havnt done it since being in the house though I did replace about 20' of pipe on the return last year changed it over to copper.

I have the auto feed supply turned off right now and will play with the boiler water level tonight.

the end of my return just befor the hartford loop has a garden hose type valve and I did open it while running last night it oozed a bit slow and lots of soot so a good flush should help.

thanks again "John"