Alpine boiler losing pressure when isloated

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Mass_ tech89

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Hey guys

I have a problem with a burnham alpine The service call is that the Alpine is losing pressure when it is completely isolated from the rest of the system. I removed burner assembly capped off the pressure relief and began Filling the system up with 70 pounds air. Very quickly on the gauge I watch the pressure drop from 70 PSI to about 30 I think the heat exchanger has a pinhole leak how can I further tests this as I cannot find the source I'm just Guessing.

The boiler is only two years old and it was done poorly look at the burner and combustion chamber it's a mess.
 

Mass_ tech89

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Sorry can't post pictures for some reason. first a tech came out for a no heat call and replaced the the high limit about a month ago and when replacing it he noticed the pressure in the boiler dropping but wasn't able to find where it's going it's not going out the drain there's no visible leaks is there anyway besides pressure testing to figure out were the water could be going. Removed the drain etc ... Have it filled up with 50 psi water and it drops so slowly but can't find any thing
 

Dana

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The max rated pressure for many boilers is 50psi. The Alpine series is rated to take it much higher, but there is no good reason to go there. Most systems are set up to operate at 15 psi or less, which is usually good enough for a boiler in the basement of a 3-story house. Excess pressure is not your friend.

Does the whole system lose pressure over time and need periodic topping off?

It's conceivable that a leak is temperature sensitive, and only leaks when the boiler is firing, but if the system isn't losing water there's no point to chasing phantoms. A pin-hole leak to the fire-side of the heat exchanger would be sending the leak water out the exhaust and never show up as a puddle on the floor or inside the combustion chamber if it only happens when it's at an elevated temperature or during firing.

See if you can't r data-size-reduce the pictures of the heat exchanger etc. and post them here.
 

Mass_ tech89

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Hey Dana thank you for the reply. Yes I tested the unit cold with air and water both the pressure dropped with no trace of water. The system is new about 3 years old first service call was just for the hi limit that's when this problem became apparent. They system is poorly done but no real apparent problems. The circulator gaskets leak very small amounts and can not be isolated from the alpine but 50 psi of water pressure is not going to leak past the gasket without so much as a mark on the floor. So weird that I cannot find any water not even stains.

However as the boiler unit cooled
Down Dana the leak did slow. I wonder if there's any merit to what you were saying about it exhausting out. The only conundrum is that even cold it slowly slowly lost its pressure. Can't figure this out ha. I will upload pics from my computer tonight as the combustion chamber looked very bad.
 

Mass_ tech89

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Here's One shot of the combustion chamber. It was just serviced in April
 

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Dana

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At the 6:00 position near the white disc there appears to be some minerlization/scale, which could be indication of a leak. Have you sent the picture to someone at Burnham?
 

Mass_ tech89

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Hi Dana

I called tech support hopin for a rep to come out... No call back yet. The heat exchanger was pretty warped looking I live near the ocean so the salt air does a lot of damage to our heat exchangers.
 

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Mass_ tech89

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The burner was pretty bad too for being recently cleaned. Not sure what's going to happen here as I'm not sure what this leak could do. The home owner is trying to get warranty.
 

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