Boiler crack or normal

Jeff Elston

The cases that I have seen the exhaust was thick white

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SusanC

Crack in boiler or normal?

I know from steam heating books that, if you see a lot of what looks like white smoke coming out of the chimney, it is really steam, not smoke, and means there is a hole in the boiler. If there is a little bit of what looks like wispy smoke coming out of the chimney is that normal with a gas-fired boiler or should I suspect that the boiler has developed a crack? I do see similar wispy "smoke" coming out of neighbors chimneys; most of these probably are not steam heat systems but probably are gas-fired.

SusanC

Thanks! That's good to hear. Being a bit of an over-worrier when it comes to steam heat, I'll ask the other side of the question in case all the cases you've seen involve big holes, and thus a lot of escaping steam rather than small cracks. Especially early morning or evening, do gas-fired heating systems produce any smoke-like products that visibly exit from the chimney in wispy form?

[Deleted User]

Sure...

Just like the exhaust on your car. It carries moisture and heat which condense when it hits cold air. If you can still see white plume when it warms up outside (above say 50 degrees F) THEN you may have a problem. Otherwise, don't worrry, BE HAPPY!

ME

SusanC

Thanks. What I see sounds normal. What I've seen in the short time that I've thought to look is only early morning and late evening on a cold day, not during the sunny day so boiler very probably is intact. Now if I could solve or find the answer to another problem or two with this system, I would be happy. By the way, your explanation was especially fitting because I thought to ask about this side of the question, i.e., gas-fired heating system chimney emissions, because of noticing this about cars in early morning.