[ManofWires15]

The sight-glass water level for my friend's oil burner heating system keeps rising. I suspect that it's the valve seat. Just curious how much a new valve costs, and how many minutes does it take to replace. Is it just a matter of shutting down the water supply and opening it? Will I need any putty, ptfe tape, or other things - silver solder, etc..

Just want to know, is it easy or hard? If it's complicated, I will suggest waiting until a technician can do it, but the owner will probably want to do it themselves. Why? Because the technician didn't do it last year. I don't know why he didn't.

But it's obvious that the water is seeping past the valve. I could recondition the valve, but I suspect that it's not a costly valve.

 

[Bondo]

Just want to know, is it easy or hard? If it's complicated, I will suggest waiting until a technician can do it, but the owner will probably want to do it themselves. Why? Because the technician didn't do it last year. I don't know why he didn't.

Ayuh,... With a sight glass, I'm guessin' it's a Steam system, 'n not hot water,..??

Doesn't it have some sorta Auto-fill system,..??

Where ever this valve is ya wanta change, there'll be water in both sides of the system that may, or may not need drainin' before ya start, 'n possibly primin'/ bleedin' after yer done,...

Exactly what yer workin' on would help, pictures would be Great,...

 

[roughneck]

I'm guessing this is a 2 pipe system then? Or 1? More info and pics would help.

 

[beenthere]

Does the water level ever go above the top of the sight glass?

How do you know it isn't normal condensate return?

 

[ManofWires15]

Pics of burner and sight-glass

Other than bleed the lines to get it going and observe one slight leak in a valve where a radiator was permanently removed, I have not really done much with this oil burner/radiator system. My friend simply says she has to "add" water periodically to keep it at the right level - meaning, tweak some knob to let water come in. Yes, sometimes I have observed the water level all the way at the top of the sight-glass, but not for the last few days. Perhaps my friend has figured out that the heater runs better if it's set midway or some kluge like that. I DID observe a small leak at one valve - but I'm fairly sure I can fix it by winding some teflon tape and packing it into the valve without taking the whole system down. I don't plan to put the removed radiator back on - it's out for good. It COULD be put back, we just don't plan on doing it since the room doesn't need heat where it was.

So anyway, I just wanted to get an opinion on about how long to either 1) replace the valve or 2) the whole sight-glass. The hardest part is probably loosening the valve - but I'm pretty good at loosening stuck/frozen metal systems - I used to work with high-vacuum systems having glass/steel. I've never ruined one in my whole life. There is no dire emergency (at least that we know of) for replacing the sight-glass valve/sight-glass in the next week or so so we're not worried yet. The heater runs a full cycle and heats the house.

I forgot to mention that I can see where the water comes in at the top - there is valve for that, so that would be shut off to take out the sight-glass.

Here's the pics:

 

[roughneck]

The sight glass has nothing to do with adding water to the boiler, it is simply an observation device. And you can't just pack Teflon into things hoping to stop leaks. Fix it right or don't bother.
That boiler has a minimum operating water level that must be maintained. If it is not you risk a boiler explosion or at the least damage.
Steam isn't something to play with blindly.

 

[jimn]

The water level in the sight glass is going to vary in height as the temps/pressure in the boiler change. You need to keep the water in the boiler such that you see the water line in the sight glass. Your danger is if the water drops out of the sight glass and leaks out of the boiler. At that point you risk a dry fire situation and over heating and lots of other nasties. Never add cold water to a boiler which has seriously depleted its water. Let it cool down first. Google steam boiler explosions etc to get an idea of what will happen.

 

[beenthere]

Is it leaking at the valve packing?

 

[ManofWires15]

The water level in the sight glass is going to vary in height as the temps/pressure in the boiler change. You need to keep the water in the boiler such that you see the water line in the sight glass. Your danger is if the water drops out of the sight glass and leaks out of the boiler. At that point you risk a dry fire situation and over heating and lots of other nasties. Never add cold water to a boiler which has seriously depleted its water. Let it cool down first. Google steam boiler explosions etc to get an idea of what will happen.

Ok, I'll let them know that it's a problem if it runs out of water. I'm not certain but I wonder if the system does not even run if it gets low on water. Is there a lock-out relay or some over-ride that causes the system to shut down? Sorry, I need to do some serious reading here on this system.

 

[ManofWires15]

Where valve is leaking?

Is it leaking at the valve packing?

I'll have to watch it tomorrow, maybe even make a real short video, so we can tell exactly where the stream comes out. It's a real, dry leak - not much water in it. More air than water but the carpet has a tiny bit of moisture in it.
It will be easy to answer your question.

 

[supers05]

FYI:
Low water cutoffs have been known to fail from time to time. We regularly check any that we're responsible for. The "electric" ones are much more reliable, but not perfect, just like everything else in this world...

Cheers!

 

[ManofWires15]

It's leaking through the valve-seat (in the pipe)

Is it leaking at the valve packing?

To solve this problem, my suggestion is to add a 2nd valve - it's 1 3/8" ID, 1 5/8" OD, is that a 1 1/2" valve? My friend wants to put the old radiator which we took off last year back on, but that doesn't solve the problem of the leak, perhaps it's ok.

So I guess I'll just buy a 1 1/2"? valve for now, then just leave the other valve open some, but a new valve should contain the water better. Does Home Depot carry the kind of valve I need?

We manually adjust the water level by letting the water in through the inlet valve when it gets low.

 

[ManofWires15]

Adjusting water level

The water level in the sight glass is going to vary in height as the temps/pressure in the boiler change. You need to keep the water in the boiler such that you see the water line in the sight glass. Your danger is if the water drops out of the sight glass and leaks out of the boiler. At that point you risk a dry fire situation and over heating and lots of other nasties. Never add cold water to a boiler which has seriously depleted its water. Let it cool down first. Google steam boiler explosions etc to get an idea of what will happen.

You're right - we open the blue valve to let water in when the water level drops, and we bleed some to purge any air, then we turn the heater on when the water level in the sight-glass is about 1/2 way up. This is working for now to compensate for any losses due to that valve that leaks or elsewhere. I may just put another valve on - it's easier than lifting the heavy, old heater up a flight of stairs.

 

[ManofWires15]

FYI:
Low water cutoffs have been known to fail from time to time. We regularly check any that we're responsible for. The "electric" ones are much more reliable, but not perfect, just like everything else in this world...

Cheers!

I don't know where our sensor is, but for sure, if we're low on water, the heater will not run, which is good. I'll have to hunt around for the sensor some time.

 

[beenthere]

Its a steam boiler, so no need or reason to bleed air out.

Which valve is leaking in the pics.

 

[roughneck]

Is this boiler safe to operate? It's had no maintenance done on the burner, and you have to manually add water to it because the auto make up apparently doesn't work, and it leaks water. It really should be gone over, and made safe. Boilers can go boom in a big way, if not cared for.