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Just a bomb

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Jackmartin
Jackmartin Member Posts: 196
Changed a circulator for a very nice single lady last week and I went to the wholesaler immediately after I looked at her system. The boiler is an old Crane Viking coal fired boiler converted to inshot gas, installed new in 1946. The old. Circulator was an Armstrong and so help me it wieghed in at 60 lbs. The system did not have a pressure relief,a temperature control , no high limit ,someone in the distant past jumped it out and put the cover back on. The manufacteurers tell us to set the cold fill pressure at 12psig. I did that and within 15 minutes the pressure went to 30 psig. I have never had that happen before and I am not young. I finally had to baby sit it and gradually adjust the fill until I found a pressure setting that was not going to blow the relief. I have talked her into putting on a strap on aqua stat to allow water temp. control, it’s Xmas so I am installing it at cost, besides that way I can sleep at night. She gets one of the largest contractors to check it for her every fall, you would think after looking at it for 15 years they would have noticed something. All the best Jack
DocfletcherSuperTechkcoppCanucker

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  • kcopp
    kcopp Member Posts: 4,432
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    Back then they used to put a stack switch in the flue to get it to click off on high limit.... Got any pix? That would be a good one to gaze at.
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,533
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    I started working for an oil company in 73'. A few of the old steam jobs that were converted to oil had a pressure control, stack switch and a relief valve. That's it. No low water cut offs.

    A few posters on here have disparaged stack switches and in this day and age there is absolutely no reason for a burner to be running with a SS but they did work and I don't recall many disasters that were blamed on them although I am sure there were some. When I started you could go to 3 gph/hr with a SS 90 second flame failure.

    That could be a nasty bomb.

    But there was a worse thing.

    Anyone remember the Honeywell Pyrostat? I remember a rotary burner firing #6 oil at 60gph on one of those