Please help me understand my steam heat. I got pictures!

LarryC

Where in Mass? Look at the top of this web page to find a Professional. What pressure is the system running? Can you blow down the Low Water Cut Out? The big black triangle looking thing. Open the valve at the bottom of it, when the system is under pressure, and get rid of some of the dirty sludge and water.

Larry C

Seth_5

Hi all, I just bought my house and it has a 75 year old boiler made by GE. It works fine, but the convectors do not heat up all at once and some do not at all until the boiler has been on for an hour or so. It takes about 30 minutes for the first convector to heat up and the first convector is only about 12 feet away from the boiler. Maybe there are some things that I am missing. Please take a look at the pictures and see what you think. Any reply will be appreciated. Thanks! (I keep trying to preview all the pictures at once on my thread before I post, but only the first picture shows. So please click on the JPEG images to see them if you cannot see them all in my post all at once)

Steamhead (in transit)

That boiler is a classic

does it have the original burner?

To speed up your system, replace those undersized main vents. Start with one Gorton #2 vent on each main.

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Seth_5

They are undersized? ok will do. And no it has a new gun on top. When I look through the looking glass, I see a very nice flame.

Mark Hunt

Seth


You wouldn't happen to be in the Schenectady, NY area would you?

I have seen so many of those GE downfired boilers it isn't funny. No fun removing them and there is asbestos inside the jacket. Keep that in mind if you ever have to replace it.

As for the "very nice flame"......if it isn't tested with a digital combustion analyser you have no way of knowing whether it is burning properly. Might look "nice" but looks mean nothing.

That boiler was YEARS ahead of it's time.

Mark H

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Seth_5

I am in massachusetts, close enough I guess. Everybody who see's my boiler says the same thing, it was years ahead of its time.

Mark Hunt

Seth


You would do WELL to take VERY good care of that boiler. In my 26 years of being in the biz, I have seen ONE with the original burner and controls. I live and work near Schenectady, NY, home of GE. I have seen that particular boiler as steam, gravity hot water and circulated hot water. I have NEVER seen one leak. In 99.9% of the cases where I removed the GE boiler, it was because the HO was changing from oil to gas. The others were because service bills were adding up.

Find a contractor in your area that KNOWS that boiler and keep them on retainer. If you let a knuckle head touch it, you'll be buying a new boiler.

It's a good boiler.

Mark H

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Seth_5

Thanks for all the info. Have all you guys looked at all my pictures yet?

Seth_5

Im in Webster Mass. I will get someone in here soon probably. Im not sure what you mean by blowing down the low water cut out. But I do every now and then open that valve to let the brown/black water out. It takes about 7 seconds for the water to come out clean after I open that valve.

Thanks for the help