Tech almost cracked customers boiler!!!

jim_14

I posted this yesterday:
"Pilot light goes out, customer calls service company
guy comes out, lights the pilot, tells customer the heats back on and then leaves.. He's there for 2 mins flat, boiler does come on when re-lit. This is a 1 pipe gas steam system.

This is a customer with a service contract and a call in the evening on cold night.

Should he have stayed longer to see if everything was ok? what did he do wrong?

theres more to this story and I will explain later if interested."

AND THIS IS WHAT HE DID:

When he relit the burner ,he took the cover off the front of the boiler.. Not realizing that he hit the valve on the LWCO and opened the LWCO half way.

Now there is a hose on the end of the LWCO thats about 10 feet, it was wrapped around and kept on the side of the boiler.. The end of that hose is ABOVE the water line.

So what happens is the rubber drain hose fills water and water equals out so that the water line in the boiler matches the water line in the hose.

He splits real quick, never bothers to let the boiler run thru its first cycle.

So now the customer is waiting for heat.. and waiting,,, decides to go back down to the basement where she see's steam coming from the side of the boiler, she shuts the emergency switch to turn the boiler off.

What happened here is once the steam pressure rose it shot out of the hose (all steam want to do is get out- right?) the least resistance was right there thru the LWCO.

By the time I got there, theres nothing but rusty water on the floor and an empty boiler. Im thinking the worst here- cracked boiler.. but it turns out this incompentant tech left the LWCO half open.

The sad thing here is that the LWCO failed, and if she hadnt have checked and shut off the burner, this thing would have ran with no water and cracked.

THEN THIS SAME GUY WOULD HAVE COME BACK AND BLAMED IT ON THE BOILER AND CHARGE THIS LADY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR A BOILER REPLACMENT FOR A PROBLEM HE CAUSED!

I could see him saying the pilot must of went out because there was small crack in your boiler ma'am, and when we relit it the crack got bigger, thats why theres rusty water all over your floor.


Had this guy stuck around for a few minutes he would have realized that he nudged the LWCO open and would have quickly corrected the mistake.. unbelievable what happened here

jim_14

that was a week ago

and boiler is still running fine..

jim sokolovic

The L.W.C.O....

blowoff valve? Doesn't it spring back to the closed position, when hit? Which brand?

Weezbo

erh.. a combinations of errors.....

any of the people compotent workers run it thru a cycle,min i mum ...am going to go further to say, it needs to be bought up to temp, observed,shut down restarted and watch the operations after repair of other system components. leaving the place without monitoring these other operations would be in my mind a criminal act. not just a mechanicl action, not just evil, criminal.when a home owner resets the burner, you must explain many things and during that 1/2 hour + conversation you must direct them to do exactly what you are saying for they are your "eyes" and "ears " on the job...

hr

How do you know when

a boiler is almost cracked

hot rod

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jackchips_2

Joe,

what is your relationship in this scenario?

Have you spoken to the service guy?

Pretty stong accusations from only one side and the contrarian in me would like to hear the whole story.

Jack

Joe_39

i spoke to the guy when he came back

after the lady called back for "no heat" and steam coming out the side of the boiler.

I pointed out what had happened, saw me with the wet vac cleaning up the soaked carpeting....

He said it was "possible" that he hit the valve , didnt offer any apology and said "we are always here for you" in broken english and quickly left. The lady (my neighbor) said next time she calls she going to tell them not to send him.

this guy spoke with a spanish accent but we got the strong feeling that his accent got worse after we pointed out his mistake. Sort of like him speaking quickly with an accent to frustrate us.. so we had to struggle to understand him.. we just got the point where we just wanted him to leave because he was doublespeaking in bad english..

nothing worse then not being able to communicate with somebody effectively ,especially when there is a problem..

Rick Kelly_3

Almost cracked boiler

Hot Rod,

I almost choked from laughing so hard over the "almost cracked boiler comment.

Tony_8

whoa !

Pretty wild accusations of what you think he MIGHT have said on the call back... If you don't trust the company any more than that, you shouldn't even call them to start with. What's a 10' hose doing on the blowdown valve anyway ? Was the boiler empty ? How do you KNOW the LWCO didn't function ? More guesses ?

I think you're sore because she paid for a service call and got 2 minutes. He should've checked it over a bit, yes, but maybe you're blowing this up a little with your conjectures ?

Dave Bush

Is that like

"Kinda pregnant"?:)

Weezbo

14 mins prego

Dave Bush

lol (nm)

Rich W

speculate

We could speculate forever. Like, maybe the guy opened the valve on-purpose to make a sale. The scary thing to me is a home owner (Sorry for not using the common HO here-these people pay my bills) who“knows-a-little” about boilers. What happens when they do not see water in the sight glass? They open the valve and start filling that hot, dry boiler………for the last time.

jim_14

He wasnt trying to make a sale

he just didnt stick around long enough to see he had knocked the LWCO valve half open...

point being he shoulda stayed 5 or 10 mins.. but lets assume the HO didnt shut the switch off... would this guy have come back and fessed up that he caused a condition that resulted in the boiler losing all its water? would he admit to his boss he caused the damage?? this boiler kept running as steam poured out into the hose and knocked the hose onto the floor..

I doubt it.. the problem would have been thrown onto the HO a long with middle of the night replacement boiler charge

larry_9

Cracked boiler?

I,m sorry your the only one that speaks english. Maybe if you spoke spanish he wouldn't have been so prejudice aginst you.

larry_9

Cracked boiler?

I,m sorry your the only one that speaks english. Maybe if you spoke spanish he wouldn't have been so prejudice aginst you.

ScottMP

Hey Joe

IS it possible the HO had tried to flush the low water cutoff before calling the service company and it did'nt seal itself ?

If you and the HO were so upset why did'nt you call the company and ask to speak to some one who spoke English.

Yes the Tech should have stayed longer, but somehow it sounds like we have'nt heard all of this story.

Do you think a Tech who dos'nt stay long enough cares about a sale ?

Scott

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jackchips_2

That's what

I tried to get at earlier, Scott.

You said it much better "---we haven't heard all this story".

David_5

How could the boiler drain

Completley from the LWCO? The water would only go down so far then stop. On most boilers this level still surounds the combustion area. Yeah he should have stayed longer, and spoken better english. I'm sure the steam scared the customer.

David

jim_14

impossible

the only one that flushes the LWCO for her is me, and I hadnt touched it in a week. And the valve handle was half between open and close..

Besides the location of LWCO is right near where he relit the pilot.. Still say he accidentaly opened it, probably nudged it with his arm as he relit the thing.. and accident happen, we understand that.. but he should of stayed to at least make sure everything worked ok..then he would of saw the condition he left.

The HO called the company back after this, and I came into the picture before he returned for a second visit. She was going to call the next morning to complain but I dont think she did.

lchmb

ok curious

In your first posting you said the LWCO had failed after the tech had been there and left the drain open. Then in your last post you indicate the customer would not have touched it and you had flushed it the week before. Had you had an issue with it prior to this? Had you tested it? What make of LWCO is it? Just curious..:)

Mijola

LWCO Photo

Jim,

Does the LWCO that you referred to look like the attached photo? Please describe, step by step, in detail, what you do to flush the LWCO for your neighbor.

This is not a trick question. If the LWCO did not shut off the boiler when the tech (allegedly) left the valve partially open, the LWCO obviously has a problem. The fact that there is a hose on it alone is also a problem.

You may not know the proper way to flush the LWCO. If so, maybe we can help you to understand the proper way to blow down and maintain the LWCO control, to avoid problems like this in the future. Many THINK they know how to flush a LWCO but find that they were wrong.

Also, how long has it been since the LWCO was removed from the boiler and completely disassembled and cleaned. Again, not a trick question. Just looking to get the proper information to offer proper advice.

Regards,

Ed Carey

Mijola

LWCO control

Joe,

These are not trick questions. The fact that there is a hose connected to a LWCO in itself is a problem. The purpose of the questions is to find out if you know how to properly flush and maintain that LWCO. We need to know the proper information to make safe and logical suggestions to you.

You said that the LWCO did not shut off the boiler when it was left partially open. What make of LWCO is it? Does it look like the one in the attached photo?

Please describe, in detail, step by step, what you do when you flush that LWCO. Is the boiler on or off? Is there steam pressure on the boiler? How long has it been since the LWCO was completely disassembled and cleaned professionally?

This entire event should have evolved into only a no heat call. If the LWCO is a problem we can help you to avoid such an event in the future. We just need to know the proper information to help.

Regards,

Ed Carey

Leo

Well now I'm Curious

I'm really curious because this thread started with JOE being concerned and now he has changed his name to JIM.

Leo

Dave Bush

Inquiring minds want to know...

Which one is pregnant? I got confused awhile back.:)

jim_14

joe/jim

sorry bout that, i share a computer in this household with other people, must have cookies on here when i used aol and didnt realize it.

BTW, since then the lady has called back for pilot going out and has gotten excellent service..

BTW..

LWCO procedure: (yes its the MM model that someone put a pic of)

to test: open valve when boiler is running, boiler should shut down as water comes out, and restart when valve closed.
For the record, I tested this LWCO last year and it DID NOT shut the boiler off when water came out. I told the lady it was bad, she called for service and they said the LWCO was fine. I wasnt there when they came but after they left I retested it and it still didnt shut down when I repeated the above.

So whats the lady to do? They say its OK. Theyre the heating pro's not me.. so I left it at that. Obviously its still not working, I cant convince her to spend $300 on a LWCO when they already told her it works fine.

Weekly maintenance.. I open the LWCO and let it run till it runs clear.. Usually I do this at the end of a steam cycle (when its been off a few minutes and pressures down to zero)

Ive done it once or twice while boiler was making steam and almost burned myself.. so the end of cycle is when I do it.

I am doing it right or can you give me a few pointers?

jim_14

hose attached to LWCO

To answer the question about the hose atttached to the LWCO:

The LWCO is in the front of the boiler, underneatht the cover. In fact everything is located under the cover, the pressuretrol, the gauge, the aquastat.

If there wasnt a hose underneath the LWCO the water would go right down onto the burners.. Theres no room even to place a bucket underneath.. So someone (the installer 20 years ago???) screwed a nipple in and attached a rubber hose so the LWCO could be drained to a location a few feet away. Not pretty but nothing else could be done.

Al Corelli - Agix Associates

Inoperative LWCO

You know the LWCO is bad.

Prove to the lady that it does not work correctly.
Do not wait for the boiler to fry.

In my opinion, what you have there is a time bomb. I would not like to be in your shoes if the boiler gives out.