Is it *ever* the feeder's fault?

Weezbo

city water pressure is over the top as in 132psi available pressure regulators seem to have a bit of an issue with that as do some of the older meters that were lashed up ahead of the regulator.

Dean_12

The previous owner said I needed to drain a few buckets of water from the boiler every week. I thought she just meant float blowdown, but I quickly realized that the boiler was taking on lots of water over a week. I shut off the valve to the auto feeder, and the "problem" went away. I figured I'd let it go and look in the summer.

That week I also noticed our hot water heater was losing water on heating cycles through the relief valve. I replaced the valve, but it continued losing water. Dropped a pressure meter on the tank and it was going up to 150 lbs/sq in right at the end of the burner cycle (it's an oil-fired water heater). That's about when I noticed the inlet and outlet pipes were tilted in, indicating pressure damage. The water meter on the house had a check valve and the water had nowhere to go when it expanded on heat. I dropped a bucket under the relief valve and tried to figure when I'd have time to put an expansion tank in.

What I couldn't figure out is why this pressure issue was happening. Pictures taken while we were first looking at the house in December of 2004 show the inlet and outlet pipes tilted in...so the pressure damage was done before we owned the place. buit we had no issues for the 2 months after we moved in. Made no sense why it was venting now when it hadn't before.

This is when that 2am, can't sleep brain function comes in. I remember bolting straight up and running down to the basement. My sleepy hunch was right. The water heater was putting out this high pressure, which caused water to push past the 125 psi max pressure regulator on the auto feeder inlet, past the feeder valve and right into the feed tank. By shutting off the valve to the feeder, I stopped water from coming in, but now took the "expansion tank" away from the hot water heater.

Is it EVER the feeder's fault??!?!?

Jerry_15

Sounds like you need a main house pressure regulator at the very least. Knocking the house pressure down to 60 psi or so may solve all your problems, not to mention the strain you are putting on the rest of your plumbing, and that's not even counting washing machine hoses. You bet a feeder that comes on with a roar can overfill a system in a New York minute. You could put a small hydronic fill regulator on it, or simply restrict the valve to a trickle, but that won't solve the rest of your problems. If your static pressure at rest, after dumping water, is over 80 psi, You need a regulator. City water meters do not regulate pressure, but they do mostly come with backflow preventers now which only makes it worse in a high pressure area. Good luck.

oil-2-4-6-gas

you need a regulator --and if you have a regulator you need an expansion tank !!