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At last! Or... not quite!

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  • markmarlatt
    markmarlatt Member Posts: 70
    edited 4:16PM

    My wife was venting to me a few weeks ago that I spent more time with our boiler than with her. My reply; But you are warm right??? Good thing I bought a comfortable sofa! ;)

  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 8,545
    edited 4:35PM

    Your story is really interesting @BobC and I'm glad you had the good sense not to flood water into a red-hot boiler. I suspect this is in fact what caused a good number of boiler explosions back in the day (and could still do so today in the case of a LWCO failure). In fact one of my "clients" called me with a case of a failed boiler that had resulted in that same "hot" smell that someone noticed—and we see a few people writing into this forum with similar situations. They all have Hartford Loops, and yet still their boilers dry-fired. No one ever seems to notice except for me. I try my very best to let it go, but sometimes I have trouble.

    I never did see how just dry firing (without the introduction of water) could cause an explosion. A fire, possibly, but how does a dry firing boiler explode unless someone throws the makeup water valve open in a panic? And this is why I remain quite skeptical that it was the Hartford Loop that made some kind of dramatic reduction in boiler explosions. I just can't connect the dots. I have never heard anyone say they could connect the dots either, they just seem to take it as gospel that the Hartford Loop was the salvation of the problem.

    You mentioned the Delco boiler didn't have a Hartford Loop. Would you see a different result in your story if it did have a Hartford Loop?

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

    Grallert
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 19,984

    If you had an oil fired boiler correctly sized you could install it with no LWCO, no Hartford, no pressure control and no burner primary control and no safety valve.

    If nothing ever goes wrong it might run 100 years without an issue.

    I have see steam boilers converted from coal that never had a lwco (don't know when they became mandatory)

    I have also heard of a "technician" that removed an oil primary and ran the burner with no safety and nothing happened until another tech found it that way and corrected it. It ran that way for a year.

    If the boiler is correctly sized you shouldn't need a pressure control either as it shouldn't build pressure so why need a safety valve?

    But things do go wrong. Coal fired boilers had no LWCO or pressure control or thermostat or burner safety control. All they had was a safety valve and maybe a Hartford loop.

    Many steam boiler don't have and don't need a Hartford loop if they have a boiler feed tank they are not required.

    The most important reason for the equalizer and HL is to drain the header.

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,215
    edited 4:55PM

    It's a shame steam heating systems haven't really been looked at or improved in what………80 years?

    It sure would be nice to see some new boiler designs, new controls etc.


    Wifi linked radiator vents etc. Improved vent quality………

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

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