Can a leaking site glass cause an overfill?

1902Shingle · January 29

We have a 1950ish single pipe steam gas boiler. A couple months ago we had a flooding issue as well as a leaking site glass (like drips and steam escaping when its full of steam) and I've been running the boiler with the water off and manually monitoring and filling since it flooded. Ive called our service guy and hes not returning my calls, hoping hes just crazy busy. I was tired of waiting so I replaced the site glass gaskets and nuts and no more leaking. We've been running the boiler for a week with constant monitoring with the water open and relying on the autofill and so far (knocking on wood) it has not flooded. Is it possible the leaking site glass was the issue or do we likely still have an issue with the float needing cleaned? Thank you as always!!

Jamie Hall · January 29

The sight glass itself is entirely passive — it doesn't do anything except tell you where the water is. So no, it can't cause an overfill.

In your setup, the most likely causes are the float, assuming you have a float type low water cutoff, sticking down keeping the autofill on or the autofill itself leaking.

Whatever, the float LWCO should be blown down once a week anyway…

EBEBRATT-Ed · January 30

With the gaskets on the sight glass leaking it may not always show the true water level in the boiler.

Captain Who · January 30

Supply valves can fail to shutoff completely and the boiler could inadvertently get overfilled.

Can a leaking site glass cause an overfill?

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