Mystery water leak - excess water take up problem

I've had 3 people over today.

One appears to be what would be affectionately called a "knucklehead". Don't think that one is much help. Was threatened by my knowledge of steam heat. Didn't understand the leak test that I had done, even after a couple explanations. Asked me if I was a plumber, and why did I need him. I said I believed that I needed a new boiler, and would he quote me one. He didn't seem to trust or even acknowledge what I had told him. He was incredulous that I had calculated out the EDR, from measurements, and Dan's EDR book.

Second fellow had a minor reschedule due to an emergency, but then called and showed up. The second contractor gets it. He was quoting from our favorite book. He's read it multiple times, cover to cover. We had a nice chat. He understood the water fill test that I had done. He will get me a quote today, with some options. He indicated he had an opening on Monday, which is very good. He grew up with steam in his house.

The third contractor was decent. Actually showed up on time, which seems to be rare these days. Not sure he really is a steam person, but was amenable to various options. He has been in the business a while, knew all the players locally. ( I knew them as well.) Felt comfortable discussing things with him. Pretty sure he understood the implication of the water fill/leak check.

Hopefully I get two or more choices to evaluate.

Beats me what boilers cost these days. I know what an install cost in 2013 though.

I think #1 up sells on maintenance plans. To some extent they are good, especially if the home owner cannot attend to some maintenance. But the guy that #1 sent, seemed to be taken aback by what I was saying. Oh well, you'd think they have heard it all by now…

I got a price from contractor #2, a steam guy. Seems reasonable, and not that much more expensive than what it cost in 2013. What's unreasonable is the fact it croaked to begin with. But this is not the fault of #2.

I'm going to sleep on it. And ask a couple of questions of him. Haven't heard from #3 yet, that gentleman said it would be tomorrow. Will decide what to do hopefully tomorrow morning.

Need to get this fixed. This heating plant stuff has already prevented me from visiting family, which makes me unhappy.

Looking at the parts diagram, the block is 100% covered by the canopy/blower assembly. It would seem that a total disassembly would be required. I'm not willing to do that in this winter season.

I take apart cars and work on them. I can machine things, I have a lathe and a mill and welder. I repair all sorts of things. But I also know when to hire someone for things that I can't or am unwilling to do. This appears to be one of them, especially since it's cold now. It's currently 17F with a 20mph wind and cooling down to 3F or 4F, depending on which weather server you use. I feel the risk is too high for me to pull it off. Could I do it? Probably, if I don't break something.

Will I risk a frozen home to try this? Not a chance. Now if I had done something similar in the past, maybe I'd give it a try. Having seen a frozen home before and what it looks like up close, and knowing that it only took 24 hours to cause over 30K in damage, (that was in 1980 dollars) I'm hiring someone. Someone who has done it before. I have never seen such devastation in a home. Boiler block frozen and split, washing machine cracked open, toilets burst, dishwashers ruined, pipes burst, ice on the walls and floor. Wallboard and plaster ruined. And this over powering feeling of being in a frozen tomb, where all the heat was being sucked out of your being. It was cold in there. It felt so much colder than outdoors. It was ghastly. Wasn't my house, it was my grandparents. Anyways, it made a deep impression on me.

I want to make a point of thanking everyone for their suggestions. I think all of them were good ideas to try. Not all of them are within my skill set, or confidence level, but all are greatly appreciated. My apologies if it appeared I didn't like or valued your suggestions. This is not the case. I think this is a valuable community providing a great service to people.

Well, I think I have wet steam. Terrible racket at start up. Water being pushed out multiple vents. Is this just more skimming? Boiler water in sight glass isn't pretty, kind of dark. I mean a week ago, my vents were all fine and apparently working.

I kept the same drop header, and plumbing. Should just be the new boiler blues, with crud that needs to be removed?

Thanks for your comments. Previous new boilers were full of crud, so I'm not surprised that this one needs more skimming. But this one is bad right now. So bad, and so much wet steam, that 3 Gorton vents failed today. None of them closed, and they were pumping out black water. One in my bedroom, one in my bathroom and one in the kitchen. The puddle in the kitchen was about 8 feet long.

I called the plumber back. I prevented the boiler from firing until he got there. He could hear the steam hammer, and immediately started looking for classic issues. We replaced radiator vents. He found a pipe that was level rather than having some pitch. Fixed that. He then noted that there wasn't a main vent at the end of the line.

I explained, that I had installed that tee, and initially installed a main vent there. I said that vent failed within a few days and was geysering water. So I plugged it. I also noted that the system behaved ok with the plug, for the last decade. He said there really should be a vent there, and I agreed saying that's what the book says, but it didn't seem to work in that location. He talked me into installing a vent there. Put in a Ventrite 35. It seemed to work.

However, after he had watched a full heating cycle, he left. He checked for the differential cutout was working, and loads of other things. But apparently, it wasn't enough. The next heat cycle was when everything went to pot again. On a cold start, less than 3 hours after he left, that Ventrite was spurting water, just like the old one I had installed a decade ago. The vent is within 6 inches of the floor above it. The floorboards were wet. And the 100A electrical service cable that ran on that joist was wet too. And my dehumidifier, and my milling machine table. Oh, and the steam hammer was back. I was kind of mad. I undid that vent, and plugged it again. At least my machine shop won't be damaged.

The issue is primarily cold start. Restarts on pressure cycling are generally ok. I'm at 1.5psi cutout with a 1psi differential. Probably needs 2 more skims.

As for leaving. I hope to sell in the next 1-2 years. Hopefully before 2 years are up. I had dialed in all the radiators without a main vent, using the venting guide on this forum. I had used Gorton vents for all my radiators. Good lord, they are pretty expensive these days. Now, some of my issues could be that 3 Gorton's failed. I don't know how to test them correctly, but all vented pretty darned hot water onto the floor, multiple times. I don't think they are supposed to do that. But all I know is the heat distribution tonight is terrible, and for over a decade it was great. I spent a lot of time in the past dialing in this system, buying two of Dan's books, and was successful at it. I'm surprised that an exact replacement of the boiler, reusing the original piping is behaving so different. Could it simply be just more skimming?