Water Fluctuation

Lori_4

How do you skim (or clean) a boiler?

I know the installers didn't do it since they left 15 minutes after turning it on. And the house smelled of pipe oil for quite a while... still does a little.

I'm starting to think I have to do this myself, so any advice is helpful.

Neal Huggins

Water Fluctuation, Bang and no heat.

I recently converted my 2 pipe system into a 1 pipe - renovations dictated this design change. It has been an ordeal, but I think overall this remodeling has worked quite well - faster heat, low power bills (as best as we can tell this first season), more even heat.

I have two questions. 1) The water level in my boiler now fluctuates greatly - to the point of shutting the boiler off about 2-3 times per heating cycle. 2) Two radiators off of one of the legs bang something awful, and the further of the 2 never heats. I have tried everything I know, but to no avail.

Any advise would be great - I live in Wilmington, NC - I think I am the last house with a steam boiler in the whole city and can't seem to find anyone who will even look at our system.

Christian Egli_2

2 in 1

1) Oil making dirty boiler water - after all you made a lot of additions on your pipes. Clean your system many times.

2) Same answer as 1); also check pipe slopes; keep all valves fully open; how are the radiator branch tied into the main? is the returning condensate diverted to the wet return before the branch connection? Is this branch connection taken off the side, the top, or the bottom of the main? Do you have main vents?

I am intrigued by your idea to change the whole system from 2 to 1 pipe. Allowing for proper installation, it is entirely possible to mix both type radiators on one system.

Willmington is a nice place to live. Can you show some pictures of the end of the mains that are problematic?

Neal Huggins

Boiler help for Wilmington, NC

Thanks for the heads up. I have read about skimming, but am not sure exactly how to do that.

I have attached several pictures. I may have my metaphors mixed - single/double pipe. The STEAM system originally had a Hartford loop with a wet return, and now there is no Hartford loop/wet return - return is the same pipe that the steam is in. See pics "branches" & "Branches 2". There are 3 branches off of the main coming out of the top of the boiler. I tied 1, 2 & 3 (see pics) directly into the original piping coming down from the floors above (where the radiators are located) to the piping you see in the pictures.

Pictures "HL Start" & "Rad 2" are the two problem radiators. ("Rad 1" is a picture of the radiator #1. #2 looks almost exactly like it). Problem radiator 1 does heat, but with banging/hammering all during the cycle - like the steam is trying to push past water. Problem radiator 2, up one floor above problem 1, does not heat at all, and hardly any steam/air even get there. Yet there are 5 other radiators on that floor that work fine off of all 3 "branches".

The whole system made all sorts of noise on the start up for about 3 weeks after the repipeing, but recently quieted down. The 'experimental' insulation on branch #2 helped a lot - I need to get real pipe insulation foe the whole thing. The water level kept fluctuating wildly, even after the start up hammer decided to go away. The two problem radiators kept making a racket and not heating, thus another experiment.

I attempted to add my version of a partial Hartford Loop. See pictures "HL Start", "HL", and "HL Drain." I did not invert the pipe as one should, hoping that a Hartford loop and wet return off of that one small part would somehow work. Well, it hasn't. There may be a little more heat in radiator #1, but #2 is still ice cold. And the hammering bang is still there, maybe even worse - it appears to be just to the right of the #1 pipe coming down from the floor above. I did this modification yesterday. Now the whole system is hammering again - is that the oil in the system? Also, the water level is still going wild.

To end the hammer, should I just try to increase the grade on this section of the piping (I did that to one other radiator off of one of the branches that was hammering midcycle - I merely jacked the radiator up and placed it on a 2X4 to give it a slightly greater grade - problem solved). And then should I remove my "modified" Hartford Loop and wet return, or leave it? And please advise on the skimming, or any other cleaning that I should do to the boiler and piping.

Want to come to Wilmington and help!!?? This makes me appreciate my day job all the more.

Neal

PS - photos in Photoshop software