Steam Boiler Water Needs

😨 And looking at the table it's getting worse.

Do any of the return pipes go under the slab or are otherwise out of sight?

Hello josephny,

Up the chimney, inspect the exhaust gas outside, let the boiler cool, flood the boiler and see if it leaks.

Yes, the exhaust gas (outside, top of the chimney) will be much denser with water vapor, often very noticeable, looks like white smoke. And yes flood the boiler just over the top, if the heat exchanger is compromised it will leak.

respectfully, in an apartment building, if you aren’t a licensed, bonded, and insured pro, you shouldn’t be touching that boiler.

The civil and perhaps criminal liabilities are astronomical

I'm not a lawyer, but it doesn't matter if he's the landlord. What matters is he is not licensed or qualified to work on the boiler and 7 households plus businesses are impacted. That's all I'll say about it since I'm not the code police, but it's something to keep in mind.

At least here in Illinois a landlord can always work on the building's equipment. No one would be able to afford properties if everything had to be subbed out to "professionals".

Fix an outlet- call an electrician? Leaking sink, call a plumber? Really?

It's only an estimate of actual water volume since it has no way to actually measure the water itself…it's only measuring the time that its valve is open and making an educated guess, but it kind of doesn't matter. It's having to refill way too often.

@josephny Yes a water leak can explain an increase in gas consumption. All your new water has to be brought up to steam temp, were as your returning condensate is already near steam temp and doesn't require as much to bring back to steam temp. So leaks are bad. you pay for water one way or another and pay again to heat it up.

OK… If there are no pipes that are hidden, then the water must be leaving in the gaseous state.  (steam is the gaseous state of water). That leak can be invisible because the steam may be leaving past a radiator valve with bad packing under the packing nut. A tenant may never know that leak is a problem. You could have an apartment where the  tenant has removed the steam vent from the radiator allowing their apartment to become very humid. A main vent in the basement may have failed. 

The worst case scenario is the boiler has a leak above the water line.  That is what the others were referring to.  To test that theory you fill the boiler above the water line and look for water leaving the boiler by way of the leaking section or gasket. (Weil McLain uses rubber gasket rings between the sections).  That water will end up on the boiler room floor. Replacing a leaking section or gasket is a major project and will leave you without heat for a couple of days, or even longer.

Look for the missing radiator vent in the apartments for a starting point.  also look for missing or leaking packing nuts. You never know why a tenant might do stupid things. 

It would not explain the excessive water usage. Does water usage go up when it's cold? Yes, but it won't go to the level you are describing. You should be able to go a month, typically longer before going off on low water. I know I add water to mine monthly and it's never actually close to low water when I do. The amount you are using per hour, should be the amount you are using over weeks of time, no matter how much the boiler is running.

Moving the thermostat won't fix a balance issue. If you have a 10 degree differential across the building, you will still have a 10 degree differential across the building after moving. Keep the upstairs at 68, downstairs will possibly now be 58, which won't fly, comfort wise, or legal wise.

Have to have proper main venting in the basement, after that balancing out the venting on radiators. Don't put the same vent on all of them, that's most likely what you have now and it's imbalanced.

Wonderful! If you had a significant boiler leak, you'd see it from that vantage point.

Which is excellent news!

What people often miss about leaks is that what looks like a huge amount of water may, if spread out over several places, be very hard to spot. Consider: 1 drop of water every 10 seconds is about two gallons of water per day. You're running around 12 gallons per day at the moment — but that is only 6 drip locations! Yes it's way too much water, but also yes… going to be a bear to find. This is the sort of thing that is often easiest to battle by paying close and consistent attention to more routine maintenance…

@josephny said: Over the past 2 weeks I have had every single radiator in the building checked. Found plenty of bad valves and even more bad vents. Even found a cracked radiator. Replaced the all. Absolutely cannot rely on tenants to bring this to our attention.

1. Have you repaired all the bad valves
2. And vents? or are you still in the process of doing that?
3. Has the cracked radiator been fixed? Or are you waiting for the replacement radiator?

Those three items: vents ,valves and a crack can account for a large enough steam loss depending on the size of each item.

Is there steam getting from the steam main to another location that is not visible? A disconnected radiator in a storage room that you have not looked in may have a opening that is letting steam out of the system on a large scale.

That amount of water has to be going somewhere.

Can you take some pictures of the boiler room and how the pipes from the returns connect back to the boiler. I'm looking for a pipe that you may be missing.