Heating Help: The Wall forum

First off thank you to Steamhead, hot_rod, EBEBRATT-Ed, Jamie Hall and jesmed1 for the education provided in my last post on boiler sizing. Thanks! This Peerless boiler is from 1989. Steamhead recommended converting to gas using a Carlin EZ gas burner. jesmed! seconded that suggestion. I gather the answer to my question is the boiler could last one more day or ten more years... But, given these pictures, I'm wondering whether there are any visual red flags that would change your thoughts on that recommendation? Also, would I be correct to be looking to use one of these? EZGas Pro Residential Gas Burner 9859210BFR1 9859212BFR1 9859214BFR1 9859216BFR1 9859218BFR1 All the above have the same specifications: Min output (BTUH) 50,000 Max output (BTUH) 175,000 Fuels LP NG Control 60200FR Ignition 41800 Not sure what the difference among these different models is, but the 50,000 - 175,000 seemed to be appropriate if we assume a heat load of 70,000 BTUs/Hr. And finally, is a stainless steel flex liner a must for using this Carlin EZ gas burner for the boiler? At a certain point the cost of the conversion and a liner may approach half the cost of a new boiler installation. The alternatives are a gas boiler, standard efficiency with a separate gas hot water heater, or a high efficiency combi-boiler providing heat and hot water. There is natural gas in the house. Thank you again.

Last year I became a proud owner of Burnham PIN5SNC-ME2 manufactured in 2003. I cleaned the combustion chamber and burners, preemptively replaced thermocouple and removed and checked the pigtail for obstructions. Everything is good here. It has McDonnell and Miller LWCO with no model number that I can see on the housing that also controls the automatic water feeder. Several times during the winter months the LWCO was malfunctioning i.e. red and green light were flashing and the relay was clicking while the water level was well above the probe. Power cycling the boiler was bringing it back to normal operation. I want to replace the probe and see if that takes care of this problem. Judging by the condition of the burners, I suspect it's never been replaced. What's the correct probe for this application? Also, several times I noticed the LWCO making repeating ticking sounds, kind of like a mechanical clock, with no other symptoms. Usually a light tap or two on the housing made the sound stop. Is it something to be concerned about? Maybe it makes sense to replace the entire LWCO together with the probe? If yes, what's the proper replacement?

Quick summary of my hydronic heating system, commisioned in 2018: 59 KBTU/h heat loading at coldest design day. 80 KBTU/H mod con, fire-tube boiler. Calculations are for 30F Delta T and 140F supply/110F return for -10F design day. A single Grundfos Alpha Circulator (no P/S pump). 15 home run emitter loops - 5 per floor, distributed via Uponor SS manifolds. 12 loops use 3/8" PEX, 3 loops loops use 1/2" PEX. I've calculated a 3.9 gpm system flow; 0.70 ft. head loss across combined parallel loops w/ emitters; and 2.06 ft. head loss across largest single loop with emitters. Every panel has an Oventrop TRV. Here is how I have been setting loop flows: First, I set each TRV at '5', which should have them 'wide open' while I set flows. I run the Alpha at it's lowest constant pressure mode setting, which ostenibly maintains 6 ft. head. This is well above the calculated drop for my total system, but is as low as the Alpha will go I then adjust each loop's flow valve to match my calcs. Calculated loop flows range from 0.1 (a bathroom) to 0.5 gpm (living room). I still have a nagging feeling I missed something in how I balanced it. The flow and head loss calcs include an equivalent length allownace for a 'valve' at each loop, but how do you actually account for the fact that each loop has a flow valve and a TRV - with the pressure drop across the TRV varying over time? Should I be following a different procedure FWIW, my TRV's are set to '3' (68F) and I leave them alone. The house temps

I live in Colorado and have a residential steam system originally installed in 1923. This home is on its second boiler, installed in 1982. I am considering what to do when it reaches the end, which I hope is still a while off. However, Colorado passed a low NOx law for gas heating units and I am wondering if there are any boilers out there that meet this requirement. I was looking at the US Boiler SteamMax, but this doesn't have a low NOx burner. Is it possible to retrofit a low NOx burner? I would really like to keep my steam system. It is quiet and reliable. I don't want to spend $50K to put in an unreliable, short lived (10-15 yrs), high maintenance, condensing HW boiler system.

My home heating system: oil-fired Peerless WBV-04-SPL boiler with Beckett AFG series burner. Boiler was installed Jan. 2017 & is a combined hydronic and single-pipe steam system (see attached pics). Steam radiators heat the original 2-story house (built in 1943). Hot water baseboards heat a kitchen-family room on first floor and 1 upstairs bedroom (new addition to house, built 2004). The original asbestos insulation on steam pipes was removed prior to our buying the house in 1990. After doing some reading on steam systems this past year, I will be installing fiberglass insulation on all exposed steam pipes this fall (better late than never!). My problem: During last winter's heating season, the boiler was losing water at an alarming rate (~1/2" drop in sight glass every 1~3 days, depending on heating demand). There is NO water on floor under boiler, nor do I see any evidence of leaks (liquid or steam) in the boiler components, exposed pipes, baseboards or radiators. The boiler hasn't lost any water while inactive over the summer. Within the last 3 years, I replaced old main vent valves (visible near top of boiler pics) with Gorton No. 1's. When I'm in the basement (my "office"), I will occasionally hear the valve on the left vent, but not very often. All radiators are fitted with Varivalve vents (Heat-Timer Corp., Fairfieldd, NJ), except for the radiator in the upstairs master bedroom. I fitted that radiator with a Gorton "C" vent, because that radiator was VERY slow to heat.

Making a post to document my VXT water feeder service kit install, since when I had tried to look up information on it previously the only thing I could find was the following youtube video from Silent Steam Team (which is indeed a very good video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZc_wQgqhaI&list=WL&index=18 I had a local plumbing company come by last year to do some service (the same company that installed the boiler in fact). I had asked the office about servicing the water feeder. I was assured the technician would have any parts necessary etc… When the tech arrived and I asked about servicing the water feeder, they said they never install any service kits, they just push the button to check its still working normally. I found this very unsatisfying, when the manual for the water feeder says to clean the filter annually, and install a service kit every 3 years. So I bought a service kit from supply house last year, but never got around to installing it in the middle of the season. Finally installed it yesterday. Previously when feeding water, after stopping (i.e. releasing manual feed button) it would take about 5-10 seconds sounding like the valve was gradually closing to stop water flow. After installing the service kit, the valve sounds like it shuts almost immediately. To start with, here are the instructions for the service kit: My water feeder: (There is another valve above just out of frame, which is shut to cut off water supply for service) VXT housing & electronic

Hello, I'm in need of some expertise. We have an old steam boiler, probably 1950/1960's and our LWCO has been failing, with it flooding twice last winter. Ive had a difficult time finding anyone even willing to work on it and was finally able to have a company from about 90 miles away give us an estimate. Does this sound reasonable or totally off base? Two of the main vents are leaking as well. Also attached is a pic of our boiler. What is the reason to want to relocate the presuretrol? I will obviously ask them too but wanted another take on it. Thanks so much!!!

WM installation has this notice: "Steam supply must be on same end as controls. Return may be from either end." See page 17 in their manual - https://www.weil-mclain.com/wp-content/uploads/EG-PEG-Series-6-Boiler-Manual-Web-Version.pdf What do they mean by supply? The riser from the boiler or the supply takeoff from the header? The Williamson manual, which looks like a photocopy of the WM manual, does not have this notice.

I feel rusty- I should know. Symmons S-96, dripping, always means a new TA10 kit? or, when do you all slap in the seat kit as well? Thanks for the refresher, I don't do the plumbing much these days

I thought most boiler Ramp controls start off at a higher fire and then Ramp down. Better models have all sorts of tweaks to this. On the IBC (with the V10 controller), the Ramp seems opposite ? (or maybe not) "How fast the boiler tries to raise the water temperature flowing through the heat emitters. …. You can manually set the Ramp Speed by choosing a value from 1 to 10. A setting of 1 will raise the water temperature very slowly and 10 will raise the water temperature very quickly." Although there's no mention of it, I would assume it also backs off the burner % as it nears target. Maybe it's a matching fast/slow ramp there too ? Does this seem like, if you set the Ramp to say "5", it's actually just capping the burner at 50% rate ? You can cap the overall boiler % rate in the main config, but maybe they also added it to each Load profile. Not sure if you end up with a % of a %. On the other hand a Load could be variable (in-floor), so perhaps the burner% jumps all over to try and maintain a steady rate of temp increase ? (not just a % cap) I'll probably start my in-floor / buffer tank at a "3" and the air handler Load at a 9 or 10. It's gonna take some playing.

I have a boiler by utica boiler company model # MGB 150HD that the pilot is on but as soom as the ignition goes on, the switch in the electric panel switches off. WHAT COULD BE THE ISSUE?

"Inhertited" the maintenance responsibilities for my parent's boiler. Original 1953 Weil-McClain 3-pass boiler updated with an AFG burner. 1400sq/ft split ranch with updated insulation, air sealing, windows, and (over) zoned in-wall hydronic convectors - K of 7.5 last winter and barely a trace of soot after a full season. Has a Tecmar 256 for ODR with occupied WWSD set at 65dF. Winter DHW was from thankless coil with kluged together nat gas WH as storage tank, that's gone, now a new IBC gas on-demand for all seasons. Works great in the heart of winter but shoulder seasons when a little heat is needed in the mornings or a cooler day they were using space heaters. Rather not have an elderly parent doing that. Can set the Tecmar occupied WWSD higher but then the boiler will run just to keep it warm. Thinking of triggering the 'unoccupied' WWSD - set at higher temp than occupied - on a call for heat so the boiler runs when it would normally be in WWSD. Effectively making it a cold start boiler. Pros/Cons to this?