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1920s Steam System - How to Add Main Vents

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  • eddymoney
    eddymoney Member Posts: 21
    edited November 24
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1873786#Comment_1873786

    This is good to know. Sounds like I've never technically flushed my boiler before (😂). I reconfigured the LWCO drain so it's further away from the burners and blew down the LWCO several times yesterday, and the system seems to be working properly now.

    Once again, I'm pretty much hearing zero noise / whistling from my radiators upstairs after the vent install, which is really nice.

    Different topic, while we're here - does anybody have any two-wire programmable thermostats out there that they recommend (if there is such a thing)? Once upon a time my electrician and I tried to install a Google Nest (overkill, I'm sure) but we could never figure out the wiring. I do have a brown (5 or 6 wire with the c-wire) that runs from my thermostat to my boiler, but we couldn't figure out the electrical side of the equation, and I got consumed with other house projects and never came back to it. If there's a simpler answer, I'm up for it (or a resource on how to install a nest). In any event, I'm away from my house fairly often with no one else home, so unless I turn my thermostat down manually, I end up wasting a lot of energy throughout the day.

  • dandub1960
    dandub1960 Member Posts: 50

    If you open the red handled valve while the burner is firing it will drain the LWCO body (not the boiler too much) and you should hear the switch in the right end click and kill the burner. Close the valve, the water level in the LWCO will recover (watch in the sight glass), the switch will click again, and the burner light off. If that is not happening, especially if regular (weekly) blow downs have not been occurring, the bellows at the base of the float (internal) is likely full of mud and will no longer flex down with water level. You will need to drain the boiler to below the lower sight glass tapping, open up the right end of the LWCO (cover, then electrical switch, then bracket, then water seal with float attached, careful with gasket). Then carefully pull the whole "sausage" and clean crud from the bellows at the neck of the float. Reverse steps to assemble and off you go.

    Steward to 1923 Spanish revival near Chicago - 2 pipe steam 650 EDR shiny new Peerless 63-06

    eddymoney

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