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help! strainer cleanout plug leak - can I run heat with water supply off?!

I have a baseboard heating system and wasn't getting heat. I bled the system at the boiler, and heat started working! However, the strainer clean out plug that is located under the water pressure regulator broke and started to leak. I turned off the system at a spot labeled "fill valve to boiler." This stopped the leak, and everything else is still running/working... can I leave my system like this until I can get the missing plug tomorrow, or should I power everything down?

thanks! worried and can't sleep.

Comments

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 9,576
    if the system has pressure you can run it with the feeder off. should be roughly 12 psi depending.
  • guywithahouse
    guywithahouse Member Posts: 2
    It shows 50 psi... that seems way higher than 12. Should I be worried?
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,176
    The pressure gauge on the system itself shows 50 psi? Yes you should be worried, though I see no particular reason not to run the thing --but not for any length of time.

    The system pressure (pressure gauge on or near the boiler) should be around 12 to 15 pounds. At 50 pounds, the pressure relief valve should have opened (they're usually set for 30 pounds), so if it hasn't opened and released the pressure there are two possibilities, neither good: the gauge is way out of whack, or the pressure relief valve isn't working -- which is dangerous. Can you post a picture of your pressure and temperature gauge on the boiler, and another of the pressure relief valve?

    And in the meantime it might not be a bad idea to leave the feeder valve closed and see if you can release enough water from the system -- it won't take much -- to bring the pressure back down to where it should be.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    DZoro