Burnham gas boiler

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Rodrigo Infante

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HI,
I might be in the wrong forum but anyway I decided to give it a shot, I recently bought a house with an existing gas boiler for a two floor system (two different apartments), I noticed as soon as I moved in (summer time) that the water level at the glass tub was always raising up, there was a broken valve, done deal.
Further on the road I noticed that the boiler will go on as soon as heat is requested from thermostat, then it will go on for a decent period of time, this will allow for the second floor to get radiators hot for as long as the system is on( I have it scheduled with thermostat), but after that nice period of time the glass tub that marks the water level will show almost no water in tank and the system will stop working until the water comes back to the proper level where it will go on again, let's say after 4 to 5 mins, when the system starts working again it will do it for about two minutes then water level goes down enough to turn the unit off, this cycle will be repeated for as long as the thermostat asks for heat, the problem is that the radiators on the first floor are getting no heat at all, or if it does it will be after more than 3 hrs of the system going on and off and it is weak, or it won't be hot at all.
I have a feeling that there might be air in the system which I am planning to verify tonight, if this is not the problem, any ideas?, maybe more information is needed to answer this?. Thanks in advance.

Rodrigo Infante
 

Leon82

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If there is a low water cut off it could shut the boiler down from what you are describing. But if its that low something was leaking at some point.

Is there a water input that may be closed?

There could be bleeder tees on the radiators. You could bleed air by cracking them open. You should post a picture and model number so the pros here could help better.
 

Dana

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I've never seen a pumped hot water heating system with glass sight-gauges, so this has to be steam. If a steam boiler is significantly under-sized for the amount of radiator area it may cycle like that, if most the water gets converted to steam, and has to wait until it condenses in the radiators and drain back for the water level to resume to a safe level for the burners to fire.

What is the exact model and BTU-input/output numbers on the boiler?

How many square feet EDR do you have for total radiation?

Crudded up or stuck system vents and the radiator vents may be what's keeping the first floor rads from getting heat.
 

Tom Sawyer

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Not knowing whether it's single or two pipe, wet or dry return, the problem is either that your return are plugged up, or your vents need replacing or both.
 

Dana

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As new owner of an old steam system, you should probably treat yourself to some instructional vidis on the care & feeding of these pets. It's possible that you have enough sludge built up in the low water cutoff to be partially responsible for some of the symptoms.
 

Rodrigo Infante

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I've never seen a pumped hot water heating system with glass sight-gauges, so this has to be steam. If a steam boiler is significantly under-sized for the amount of radiator area it may cycle like that, if most the water gets converted to steam, and has to wait until it condenses in the radiators and drain back for the water level to resume to a safe level for the burners to fire.

What is the exact model and BTU-input/output numbers on the boiler?

How many square feet EDR do you have for total radiation?

Crudded up or stuck system vents and the radiator vents may be what's keeping the first floor rads from getting heat.


Dana,
The boiler model number Burnham SIN6LNC-LE2/ Input 175,000 BTUs
It is 2 apartments with one pipe feeding each apartment, they are about 1000 s/f each apt, each apartment has 7 radiators, I dont know how to determine the s/f EDR.
I had a plumber coming to look at it last week, he basically clean the boiler tank and regulated the pressure that he thought it was too much as it was set, after his visit the system run magically, but after a week started to short cycling again, he did mentioned that the return pipe for the first floor is not pitched properly and water might stay in the run since it makes it back to the boiler by volume and not by gravity, the reason why I am saying this is because the glass tub that shows water level has been decreasing its level slowly. I can provide more information if needed, I have been watching videos and I troubleshooted the unit as much as my acknowledge allows me. I think I narrowed the problem to the water return pipe or the ventilation duct that the plumber says it is ok (I don't know exactly how deep he went to the duct vent since I made it back home when he was already testing the system).
Thanks for you attention.
Rodrigo
 

Dana

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It's a common error for folks hacking at it to crank up the pressure on steam systems when what they really need to do is to figure out why the gases (water-vapor or air) can't move. Most work fine at 0.5 psi if the vents aren't sticky or corroded up, and when they ARE sticky or corroded the solution is to clean or replace the vents, not increase the pressure, even though increasing the pressure sort-of works for awhile.

If the incorrectly sloped piping is creating a vapor trap, that could easily be a cause for poor heating effectiveness on the first floor.

The water levels can also drop if the system is losing water in the form of steam or a water leak on the return line.
 
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