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boiler heat, no heat,no water and some more

Have a 15 year old Utica boiler. little problems. a few days ago,woke up to no heat,boiler was cold,but metal pipe to chimney was warm and made slight gurgling noices.The boiler seemed empty Our "heat-tech" cleaned the automatic water-feeder and all was well for 2 days. this morning, no heat,,but water in glass, when I pushed thermostat up, it came on, but very hot,BOILER COOL,PIPE TO CHIMNEY VERY HOT, CANT TOUCH IT,and makes a funny sound at that place also. Already my tech blames it on the Honeywell thermostat, I don't believe him he will be here shortly? well maybe. any thoughts?  Thanks a lot every-one.(Could it be, that the steam develops only near the chimney pipe,because there is water backing up? Also, why should smoke be THAT hot!  IKL

Comments

  • JStar
    JStar Member Posts: 2,752
    Steam

    Boiler might be leaking. Try to overfill it and see if water comes out on the floor.
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,161
    Well, at least it's not the thermostat...

    By "metal pipe to the chimney" I would assume that you are referring to the stack connection.  That will get hot, make no mistake, when the burner is running.  However, it shouldn't gurgle!



    What is not clear is whether the boiler is still making steam, or whether it shuts down before it can make steam.  However, if there is water in the glass (assuming that the glass is really indicating the water level -- valves open?  Connections clean and open?) then there is water in the boiler and, if the burner is running, it will make steam even if there is a good big leak.



    Look outside when the boiler is steaming -- do you see considerable white "smoke" out of the chimney?  if so, you surely do have a leak, although the lack of "smoke" doesn't mean you don't.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • steancrazed
    steancrazed Member Posts: 11
    thanks !

    thanks for all the help. I will look into this. right now its hard,since the weather is above normal and our heating-system does not like this.Its late, tomorrow I check. Will also check the smoke. And thanks for agreeing that it is not the thermostat.  

    IKL, the steamcrazy old woman.
  • rmoore007ri
    rmoore007ri Member Posts: 45
    sight glass

    If there is too much water in the boiler then the sight glass may look empty.
  • steancrazed
    steancrazed Member Posts: 11
    boiler,no heat,water and more, more questions

    thanks for all the post I got so far. New questions.

    1. boiler empty. 2.tech. cleaned automatic water-filler/line.all ok for 2 days at the best. NOW: wake up to a cold morning, 2x, push thermostat some, but just a humming noice from the back of boiler,there are all kinds of pipes,lines et.and nothing else ,push stat  very high, comes on,full blast, the stack (thanks for the correct name) so hot, I can feel the heat blowing from there. NO white smoke from chimney,but the house smells like hot steam BUT could be just hot radiators and pipes. It would be a strange coincidence, but possible that the boilers receptor of signal was damaged? I have an old model Honeywell installed last year against objections from service co.

    IF I need new stat, I want one with an anticipator, any suggestions to any or all??   Thanks already!  Ingrid,



    NOW:
  • steancrazed
    steancrazed Member Posts: 11
    now a new thermostat?

    Thanks for prev. answers. Now I have a new problem. could it be, that the shutdown of the boiler caused the stat to disfunction? It starts to late, and it cut out to late.so its way to cold, then way tooooooo hot, very hot, Can a Honeywell Stat be fixed? Is it possible that the receiver on the boiler was damaged,when the system shut down/  Thanks.
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