will turning off boiler cause problems?

19mquinn79

i need to turn off the main water supply to my house, for a project unrelated to my boiler. But my boiler obviously uses water, so I assume I need to turn off my boiler (shut off the power supply) as long as the water supply is shut off.

assuming i'm right about having to turn off the boiler, will doing this cause problems later on when I turn it back on? I read somewhere that with some boilers, you need a technician to properly turn it back on and get it started again. is this just a myth? thanks...

yuri

If it has an automatic water feeder valve then the water should be on BUT most of them don't work anyway (seize up and get clogged with rust internally) and the boiler needs to be filled manually and the expansion tank if it has the old horz torpedo type drained and refilled occasionally. If it has a bladder expansion tank then it does not need refilling. If it is a steam boiler with auto fill valve then it must have water so it depends on the setup you have. I would not worry about shutting it off unless it is for more than 8 hrs. After that it must be restarted and warmed up slowly so the pipes can expand slowly and not have leaks. Post a bunch of pics of the boiler and area around it for more help.

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Bondo

Nope,... All ya gotta do is shut off the boiler's supply valve, so's it don't back-feed it's water, due to the lack of supply pressure...
There Should be a check-valve, but shuttin' the manual valve insures the isolation, 'tween the 2 systems...

The boiler will continue to heat, regardless what yer doin' with the domestic supply...

19mquinn79

really? i know nothing about boilers. how does it continue heating water, if the water supply is shut off?

yuri

A boiler is like your car engine with a radiator. It is a closed loop. Unless your antifreeze leaks out from your car it won't overheat and you can go forever. Almost the same with a boiler as it should be checked every 2 yrs to make sure it has not lost any water and air gets in the system and needs to be bled out. Not going to give you a course here but if you google hot water heating system or boiler you can read all about it. As long as you follow my first post you should be OK.

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beenthere

As above. your boiler is a closed loop system. it doesn't heat fresh water to heat your house everytime it runs.

Canucker

It should be a closed loop, but it may be an open loop install. I've seen some of those. Who wants to spend the money to do it right when you can use the hot water heater to warm your floors? Legionella? What's that?

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beenthere

Since he said boiler and not water heater. I'm going on a boiler.

An open system on a boiler would tend to destroy the boiler every 10 years or so.

Canucker

But think of all the money they saved on the install.

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