In this case, the owner said the steam pop safety valve kept opening. He replaced the pop safety valve and the new one did the same thing. I take about the cause of the problem and the dangers of being inside a steam filled boiler room
Ray, Yesterday I had a customer, he is 93 years old and still has all his marbles call me up to tell me that at one of his rental buildings the heat was down. It is oil fired steam heat. Upon arrival the basement was semi flooded and at first glance i thought the boiler was leaking but it turned out that the sight glass was worn thin and broken by the steam. The steam found it's way into the probe type low water cut off and killed it. I replaced the low water cut off (it is a Hydro level cycle guard 450) and I tested it to be sure that not only would it cut the burner off when low on water, but also to test the automatic water feeder which is a Hydro level VXT- 120 set to a 2 minute delay and to satisfy the low water cut off to see if it was operating correctly. To my surprise, the feeder kicked on but wouldn't let water through. I removed it to inspect it and it was so gunked up etc, that i just decided to replace it instead of trying to clean it if even could, it was bad. Anyway, I replaced it and I tested it and the low water cut off several times and all was good and checked out. Heat back on and the controls operating properly until I get the call about 2 hours later that the basement is flooded with 2 inches of water and it is raining in the basement. My guess is either a defective new water feeder or defective new low water cut off with brand new probe, perhaps the low water cut off is not detecting water and sending signal to the feeder. I have a tech from Hydro Level coming out to help get it solved.
im sure the combustion adjustment saved fuel costs plus wasting fuel on the problem they didnt seem to be in a hurry to fix. customers like that are not worth dealing with.
