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Weil McLain boiler kept overfilling, now stopped.

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heatingnoob
heatingnoob Member Posts: 2
in Gas Heating
Hi,

I have a steam boiler that kept overfilling for 3 days straight. One the first day I drained out 2 buckets and on the following days I drained out one full bucket each time. Also, each time I drained it, I took the water level down to 3/4 full as indicated by sight glass. Now it seems to have stopped overfilling. It's been over 14 hours and not a drop more was added to the boiler as seen by using the sight glass. At all times the manual valve and the straight handle LWCO bypass valve were tightly closed.

I should mention that before all this happened, the boiler was auto fed by the LWCO improperly (and it over filled the boiler thereby starting the draining process).

My question is, how realistic and likely is it that there was too much water pushed out to the pipes, thereby resulting in a return of extra water back to the boiler over the following days? Does stuff like this happen? Thank you.

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,286
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    It's possible, though I would have thought it would happen quicker.

    Now that you have the valves all off and it's holding, I'd not worry too much... but. Keep an eye on the water level! Once a day to take a look is none too often.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    heatingnoob
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    if all you had to drain was a couple of buckets each time, the excess water would have all been in the boiler, maybe a little in the riser so it would be very doubtful that any water is out in the system.
    Hopefully you will have the auto water feed serviced/replaced before you try using it again.
    heatingnoob
  • heatingnoob
    heatingnoob Member Posts: 2
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    Weird. Both the manual feed and the bypass feed were both completely closed the whole time. Very strange. But seems ok now. Thanks for replies.
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    Do you have a coil for potable Hot water in this boiler? Those coils can spring a leak and overfill the boiler but it would seem that too would be on-going. Keep a close eye on things for a while. If it did it once, it will likely do it again. Do you have inquisitive young kids who like to play around in the basement? :smiley:
    heatingnoob

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