Boiler turning on and then water in sight glass goes low and it shuts off. Water level rises and she turns back on. How to keep the water steady in the system?
thank you for this info. But where is your water draining out to? I filled my sight glass with too much water. How do I drain the water out? My sight glass does not have the drain valve by it. There is a bucket underneath a knob (left over from the previous owners) on the other side of the boiler which I think might be the drain valve. Should I try turning it?
Do you have anyone in your area experienced with steam boilers? It sounds like you might have a lot going on, and since I cannot see your system and what you're up against, I am reluctant to say yea or nay and put you in a worse situation.
This is a very unusual case of two boilers side by side. One boiler is the "on" boiler for the season, the other boiler is off on standby but floods because the 100+ year old king valve leaks a bit. No worries, a flooded boiler is partly protected from corrosion.
Thank you for your illustrations , very informative, Question , when I shut off the boiler for the summer, should I leave it empty or full with water ?
You are most welcome! I would *not* leave your boiler drained over the summer. The wet inner surfaces will retain wetness and the greater surface area exposed to the air will rust more. Most leave the water level @ mid gauge, while others may perposly flood their boiler in an effort to reduce oxygen exposure. Your call on what is best for you.
@@theopszone6775 It is possible your sight glass fittings are clogged and that can prevent you from getting a true reading of your water level in your boiler.
Thank you for the demo, Gordon. We have a packaged water tube boiler at work. Lately, the boiler has been flooding, once a day or so. The boiler floods and the Feedwater pump keeps running. Any idea what might be happening. We don't have a high water cutoff.
Perhaps the low water cut-off is sending a false signal to the feed water pump - is it a float-type LWCO? Sticking floats are a common cause of flooding boilers. We've had several such failures this year alone.
@@gordonschweizer5154 That's the first thing that I thought as weii. We put a new head mechanism on the float column but it happened again. Last week it sometimes happened once a shift and then it didn't happen for a couple of days. It doesn't happen after a blow down or LWCO tests, or any other tests. It just happens out of the blue.
@@dewey893loftus2 I'm going to guess this is a Mcdonnell & Miller float control? In any case, you might try to get a hold of the factory rep of your new product to offer suggestions, because it sounds like you might have a mystery on your hands. Does your system hold a vacuum? Another defective product new out of the box, perhaps? Not unheard of, unfortunately. I 'm also going to assume when you replaced the float head, you cleaned the chamber thoroughly and made sure the connecting piping was reamed out of rust.
Our boiler have to feed water more often , now once a day, does it mean the radiator valve open too high , so too much hot air to lose? Please advise me. Thanks a lot
I am sorry to say you might have a major leak somewhere in your ssystem. Leaking air vents, loose packing at the valves, union nuts leaking, wet returns leaking to name just a few.
I think the 230-5WG is a hot water boiler, and as such, does not use a sight glass. A sight glass is used for checking the water level in steam boilers.
No, it should most certainly not. Normal waterline in the boiler should be about mid way up the gauge glass. You don't want too much water in a steam boiler, nor should there be too little.
I have a Burnham residential boiler, with an automatic water feed unit. Twice in a month's time, I woke up in the morning with water on the floor from the pressure relieve valve pipe. The sight glass was completly full. The splashing of the water coming out the overflow pipe, splashed upward, and into the fire box, flooding out the pilot light, and added a little water on the heating tube vents. Cleared tubes, relit pilot. Furnance works and heats fine. What is causing the furnance to overflow like this? In the over 30 years of living in my home, furnance never gave me a situation like this. Please advise.
Just a guess, but it may be your automatic feeder (a Uni-Match?) is sticking open when it feeds. Does your feeder have a manual feed button? If so, press it and let go. Does the feeder keep feeding?
It also sounds like your boiler is failing. That is to say it has a hole in one of the cast iron sections above the water line that is causing the water to appear in your firefox when the boiler floods. Shut off the manual feed and run your boiler with out it. Do you need to re- fill the boiler more than once per week? If so, you"'ve got a leak somewhere.
@@gordonschweizer5154 Hello Gordon. Before I went to bed, I checked the water level on the sight glass - which was at the normal level. The next morning, my sight glsss was completly filled. As I was discharging the water through the hand valve beneath the automatic feed housing, the automatic water feed sensor assembly above the furnance was kicking on to replace the water I was draining. When I shut the drain valve off, the automatic feed assembly stopped when the water in the sight glass was completely full again. When I began to drain some more water from the sight glass, the automatic water feed assembly kicked on again. That told me that there is something wrong with my auto feed sensor. I opened the cover to the unit, and disconnected one of the two red wires connected to the auto feed unit. For now, until I can replace the sensing unit, I am using the manual bypass valve assembly to add water as needed. That is why I found water on the floor around the water pressure relieve valve pipe that runs the length downward along the furnance. Checking the underside of my heat exchanger, through the firebox - I found no water leaks. Since I disconnected the auto water feed circuit, the furnance works fine, and no more water on the floor. Thanks for your help.
@@rickprusak9326 Thank you very much for sharing your detailed and well written adventure! Very Glad to know you don't have a rusted out boiler as I sure you are, too! We have noticed issues with M/M LWCOs intermittently sending false low water signals to the feeder. Difficult to catch them in the act.
@@gordonschweizer5154It is always an adventure being a home owner, a building, or business owner. If it isn't one thing - it's always another. Same with owning a vehicle. Anything designed and built by a human, will eventually fail - when we least expect it. THANK YOU AGAIN, for educating the people around you, and on You Tube, and passing your knowledge on to those who seek it. Peace..
I manually filled the boiler to much. But I opened the release valve and a lot of water came out. But the water in the sight level is still full. How do I lower it. I don't have the drain lever like you do.
I think you will need to find and use your boiler drain. I hope for your sake, it is not clogged. You will most likely need to remove buckets and buckets and bucketsof water before you see the water level drop in the sight glass.
@@gordonschweizer5154 is their another way to remove the water because the drain valve is broken. And water already came out from the release valve so is their really that much water inside?
Do you have a sump pump near your boiler? Or do you have a wet vac? I'd remove that boiler drain and replace it with a full port drain valve. I'd be prepared for a fair amount of water to come rolling out.
@@mohammada4585 Keep draining until you are absolutely sure no water remains in your system. Make any necessary repairs and re-fill to the proper level.
I just moved into a house with a steam boiler. Today the water was low so the boiler stopped working. I added water to the appropriate amount and reset the boiler. It heated water for like 2 minutes then turned off. How do I fix? 😢
That is hard to say, are there are any number of things that could shut down your boiler in mid-cycle. For example, the "pigtail" under your pressure controller could be (almost) clogged and not allow the control to re-set. You might need to call in a pro
Great to know. If the red valves have some water leaking from the inside, does it mean adding too much water? I had no this kind of problem before, but yesterday when I add to much water accidentally, I found dropping, have to close, but not the boiler can not turn on to heat. Any suggestions?
@@gordonschweizer5154 not yet ，I was not at home. will do today , thank you so much. The two red valves between sight glass showed water dropping from inside so I close them, a mistake from what you said to other people, should full open. I call plumber who seems too busy, not want to come, so I will try my best first.
@@jimwu1182 I think you might be talking about packing nuts leaking around the stems of the sight glass valves. You can try tightening the nuts first to slow the leak then open the valves. Drain the water. Might as well drain all of it. Repack the sightglass valve stem nuts (check other videos on that). Oh, before you drain, turn off the power to the boiler. The boiler might be not trying to heat because the pressuretrol has it shut off due to the volume of water. As you drain, the boiler might start to fire before you have the water at the proper level if you leave the power on. Make sure your pigtail is clear.
The water in the sight glass on my boiler goes from half to empty after 20mins of running the system . After letting sit for a few hrs the water level returns to a little below half on the sight glass
I would suspect the wet returns are full of sludge, slowing the return of water back to the boiler. Make sure all radiator valves on single pipe steam systems are full open.
@@gordonschweizer5154hi my boiler yesterday can not turn on, I added too much water. Can I empty water from other side drain to let boiler on. Your advice is appreciated
@@pb7379-j2k Sprinklers indeed! I've seen it, it ain't pretty. Glad you caught too. Sorry to be a bother, but which MM, the old clunker type, or the newer electronic type?
There should be a place where the household water is connected to the boiler's water return line probably via a 1/2" copper pipe with a valve on it. If you open that valve and watch the sight glass you should see it rise. Do it slowly.
Sorry to hear that. There are a lot of different things that could cause that. Let's assume you have a steam boiler. Malfunctioning heat antisipator on an old mercury style T-stat. Mostly clogged pigtail going to your pressuretrol. Main gas supply issues. Failing ignition control, or bad electrical ground to same. These are just a few that it might be. Need a bit more info as to what you have.
Hi Gordon very nice videos I watched them all the time . Do you have any videos installing low water cut off to the side glass I can't find them ?
Thank you!
th-cam.com/video/IThoboKgnes/w-d-xo.html
Does this help?
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you very much 😊 🙏
Boiler turning on and then water in sight glass goes low and it shuts off. Water level rises and she turns back on. How to keep the water steady in the system?
Is this a new problem? Do you know what your maximum pressure is set at?
thank you for this info. But where is your water draining out to? I filled my sight glass with too much water. How do I drain the water out? My sight glass does not have the drain valve by it. There is a bucket underneath a knob (left over from the previous owners) on the other side of the boiler which I think might be the drain valve. Should I try turning it?
Do you have anyone in your area experienced with steam boilers?
It sounds like you might have a lot going on, and since I cannot see your system and what you're up against, I am reluctant to say yea or nay and put you in a worse situation.
Hi Gordon thank you for the demonstration, what's cause the boiler overflow?
This is a very unusual case of two boilers side by side.
One boiler is the "on" boiler for the season, the other boiler is off on standby but floods because the 100+ year old king valve leaks a bit.
No worries, a flooded boiler is partly protected from corrosion.
Thank you for your illustrations , very informative,
Question , when I shut off the boiler for the summer, should I leave it empty or full with water ?
You are most welcome!
I would *not* leave your boiler drained over the summer.
The wet inner surfaces will retain wetness and the greater surface area exposed to the air will rust more.
Most leave the water level @ mid gauge, while others may perposly flood their boiler in an effort to reduce oxygen exposure.
Your call on what is best for you.
Thank you for sharing! I'm getting familiar with my boiler. 💚🙏
I am glad this helps!
so I'am trying to fill the water level But the water isn't raising at all when turning the valve on.
@@theopszone6775 It is possible your sight glass fittings are clogged and that can prevent you from getting a true reading of your water level in your boiler.
Thank you for the demo, Gordon. We have a packaged water tube boiler at work. Lately, the boiler has been flooding, once a day or so. The boiler floods and the Feedwater pump keeps running. Any idea what might be happening. We don't have a high water cutoff.
Perhaps the low water cut-off is sending a false signal to the feed water pump - is it a float-type LWCO?
Sticking floats are a common cause of flooding boilers.
We've had several such failures this year alone.
@@gordonschweizer5154 That's the first thing that I thought as weii. We put a new head mechanism on the float column but it happened again. Last week it sometimes happened once a shift and then it didn't happen for a couple of days. It doesn't happen after a blow down or LWCO tests, or any other tests. It just happens out of the blue.
@@dewey893loftus2 I'm going to guess this is a Mcdonnell & Miller float control?
In any case, you might try to get a hold of the factory rep of your new product to offer suggestions, because it sounds like you might have a mystery on your hands.
Does your system hold a vacuum?
Another defective product new out of the box, perhaps?
Not unheard of, unfortunately.
I 'm also going to assume when you replaced the float head, you cleaned the chamber thoroughly and made sure the connecting piping was reamed out of rust.
Our boiler have to feed water more often , now once a day, does it mean the radiator valve open too high , so too much hot air to lose? Please advise me. Thanks a lot
I am sorry to say you might have a major leak somewhere in your ssystem.
Leaking air vents, loose packing at the valves, union nuts leaking, wet returns leaking to name just a few.
I dont have anything like that on my boiler. I have no clue of how to check the water level. I have model 230-5WG
I think the 230-5WG is a hot water boiler, and as such, does not use a sight glass.
A sight glass is used for checking the water level in steam boilers.
Then I guess I'm looking at all the wrong videos. The PSI is on 12 so I guess everything is okay
I would give Gordon 10000 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Does.the sight glass become empty when the heat is on
No, it should most certainly not.
Normal waterline in the boiler should be about mid way up the gauge glass.
You don't want too much water in a steam boiler, nor should there be too little.
@@gordonschweizer5154 ok how do I stop it from making the loud hammering sounds when the boiler turns off and on
@@Wakanda1000 I am sorry, but without looking at your system, there is no way I can offer useful advice on that.
I have a Burnham residential boiler, with an automatic water feed unit.
Twice in a month's time, I woke up in the morning with water on the floor from the pressure relieve valve pipe. The sight glass was completly full. The splashing of the water coming out the overflow pipe, splashed upward, and into the fire box, flooding out the pilot light, and added a little water on the heating tube vents. Cleared tubes, relit pilot. Furnance works and heats fine. What is causing the furnance to overflow like this? In the over 30 years of living in my home, furnance never gave me a situation like this. Please advise.
Just a guess, but it may be your automatic feeder (a Uni-Match?) is sticking open when it feeds. Does your feeder have a manual feed button? If so, press it and let go.
Does the feeder keep feeding?
It also sounds like your boiler is failing. That is to say it has a hole in one of the cast iron sections above the water line that is causing the water to appear in your firefox when the boiler floods.
Shut off the manual feed and run your boiler with out it.
Do you need to re- fill the boiler more than once per week?
If so, you"'ve got a leak somewhere.
@@gordonschweizer5154 Hello Gordon. Before I went to bed, I checked the water level on the sight glass - which was at the normal level. The next morning, my sight glsss was completly filled. As I was discharging the water through the hand valve beneath the automatic feed housing, the automatic water feed sensor assembly above the furnance was kicking on to replace the water I was draining. When I shut the drain valve off, the automatic feed assembly stopped when the water in the sight glass was completely full again. When I began to drain some more water from the sight glass, the automatic water feed assembly kicked on again. That told me that there is something wrong with my auto
feed sensor. I opened the cover to the unit, and disconnected one of the two red wires connected to the auto feed unit. For now, until I can replace the sensing unit, I am using the manual bypass valve assembly to add water as needed.
That is why I found water on the floor around the water pressure relieve valve pipe that runs the length downward along the furnance. Checking the underside of my heat exchanger, through the firebox - I found no water leaks. Since I disconnected the auto water feed circuit, the furnance works fine, and no more water on the floor. Thanks for your help.
@@rickprusak9326 Thank you very much for sharing your detailed and well written adventure!
Very Glad to know you don't have a rusted out boiler as I sure you are, too!
We have noticed issues with M/M LWCOs intermittently sending false low water signals to the feeder.
Difficult to catch them in the act.
@@gordonschweizer5154It is always an adventure being a home owner, a building, or business owner.
If it isn't one thing - it's always another. Same with owning a vehicle. Anything designed and built by a human, will eventually fail - when we least expect it.
THANK YOU AGAIN, for educating the people around you, and on You Tube, and passing your knowledge on to those who seek it. Peace..
I manually filled the boiler to much. But I opened the release valve and a lot of water came out. But the water in the sight level is still full. How do I lower it. I don't have the drain lever like you do.
I think you will need to find and use your boiler drain. I hope for your sake, it is not clogged.
You will most likely need to remove buckets and buckets and bucketsof water before you see the water level drop in the sight glass.
@@gordonschweizer5154 is their another way to remove the water because the drain valve is broken. And water already came out from the release valve so is their really that much water inside?
Do you have a sump pump near your boiler? Or do you have a wet vac? I'd remove that boiler drain and replace it with a full port drain valve. I'd be prepared for a fair amount of water to come rolling out.
@@gordonschweizer5154 Okay so I got the drain valve open and the water came out, but the sight level is still full.
@@mohammada4585 Keep draining until you are absolutely sure no water remains in your system.
Make any necessary repairs and re-fill to the proper level.
I just moved into a house with a steam boiler. Today the water was low so the boiler stopped working. I added water to the appropriate amount and reset the boiler. It heated water for like 2 minutes then turned off. How do I fix? 😢
That is hard to say, are there are any number of things that could shut down your boiler in mid-cycle.
For example, the "pigtail" under your pressure controller could be (almost) clogged and not allow the control to re-set.
You might need to call in a pro
The sight glass has 2 red valves. Are they supposed to be open or closed?
Both should be full open unless you are servicing the sight glass when the boiler has water in it.
Great to know. If the red valves have some water leaking from the inside, does it mean adding too much water? I had no this kind of problem before, but yesterday when I add to much water accidentally, I found dropping, have to close, but not the boiler can not turn on to heat. Any suggestions?
@@jimwu1182 Have you drained your boiler to the proper water level?
@@gordonschweizer5154 not yet ，I was not at home. will do today , thank you so much. The two red valves between sight glass showed water dropping from inside so I close them, a mistake from what you said to other people, should full open. I call plumber who seems too busy, not want to come, so I will try my best first.
@@jimwu1182 I think you might be talking about packing nuts leaking around the stems of the sight glass valves.
You can try tightening the nuts first to slow the leak then open the valves.
Drain the water.
Might as well drain all of it.
Repack the sightglass valve stem nuts (check other videos on that).
Oh, before you drain, turn off the power to the boiler.
The boiler might be not trying to heat because the pressuretrol has it shut off due to the volume of water.
As you drain, the boiler might start to fire before you have the water at the proper level if you leave the power on.
Make sure your pigtail is clear.
My sight glass keeps filling to the top so I'm constantly letting water out, what is the problem and what can I do?
Do you have an automatic water feeder? Do you have a domestic hot water coil?
@@gordonschweizer5154 No automatic water feeder or hot water coil.
@@followtheglow Ok, then it seems the only thing left is the hand valve is slowly passing water into your boiler.
@@gordonschweizer5154 Is there an easy fix for this?
@@followtheglow I'd replace the feed valve.
The water in the sight glass on my boiler goes from half to empty after 20mins of running the system . After letting sit for a few hrs the water level returns to a little below half on the sight glass
I would suspect the wet returns are full of sludge, slowing the return of water back to the boiler.
Make sure all radiator valves on single pipe steam systems are full open.
I guess I have similar problems, have you solved it yet?
@@gordonschweizer5154hi my boiler yesterday can not turn on, I added too much water. Can I empty water from other side drain to let boiler on. Your advice is appreciated
@@jimwu1182 Yes, you should drain the excess water thru the boiler drain to the proper level - midway in the sight glass
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you so much ， I will try
Great example, thank
You are welcome!
Site glass is half full no water coming out of drain or blow down when hot
It sounds like your blow down drain is clogged?
Something is clogged, at any rate.
Great Info !! Thanks for posting
Glad it was helpful!
Mine flooded right after this last heating season just like that! I’m sure the autofeeder failed so I closed its manual valve.
Sucks when that happens, doesn't? You have a VXT autofeeder, is that so?
Gordon Schweizer no I think its the MM one? But at least I caught it before my radiators became sprinklers!
@@pb7379-j2k Sprinklers indeed! I've seen it, it ain't pretty. Glad you caught too.
Sorry to be a bother, but which MM, the old clunker type, or the newer electronic type?
Gordon Schweizer I think it’s from the 90s so...old electronic type 😉. Uni-Match
@@pb7379-j2k Are you thinking about replacing the Uni-match with a VXT feeder?
I just moved into a home with a peerless cast iron steam boiler. The sight glass water level is getting low, do you know how to add water to it ?
There should be a place where the household water is connected to the boiler's water return line probably via a 1/2" copper pipe with a valve on it. If you open that valve and watch the sight glass you should see it rise. Do it slowly.
What if the boiler keeps turning on and off because the water in the sight glass is getting too low? @pb7379-j2k
My boiler will run for few minutes then turns back off not heating up
Sorry to hear that.
There are a lot of different things that could cause that.
Let's assume you have a steam boiler.
Malfunctioning heat antisipator on an old mercury style T-stat.
Mostly clogged pigtail going to your pressuretrol.
Main gas supply issues.
Failing ignition control, or bad electrical ground to same.
These are just a few that it might be.
Need a bit more info as to what you have.
I don't understand
Would you like to know more?
@@gordonschweizer5154I ended up watching it again, it makes sense now. No idea how I screwed that up tbh lol
But thanks ; D
Hi
It snow an my house is froze
Yes?