"JKevorkian" wrote in message
news
Last winter my gas-fired boiler refused to fire, even after replacing the
low-water cutoff switch, the pilot generator, and eventually the gas
valve.
After poking and prodding everything that seemed to move, I lifted the
indicator
on the steam pressure cutoff box and the burners finally lit off. When I
took
my fingers off the indicator, the burners went out. "Hmmm", thought I.
"Another
adjustment that probably went awry."
I turned the screw at the top of the switch box until the burners lit and
stayed
lit and congratulated myself on my brilliant deduction.
I awoke the next morning to a great whooshing noise emanating from the
basement,
and discovered the room full of steam. The relief valve on the boiler was
open
and gushing steam "everwhar". Ot was so damp down there, the flourescent
lights
wouldn't go on. After filling the boiler with cold water to bring the
pressure
down, and exhaustiing the steam outdoors with a fan, I turned the cutoff
switch
screw back to where I thought it was originally. Of course, the boiler
wouldn't
fire again, and I finally discovered that that curly pipe going to the
bottom of
the switch box was plugged with rust. I replaced the pipe, and the
furnace has
been working dependably since then.
However, one thing concerns me:
The pressure gauge on the boiler reads around 4-7 lbs when it's really
humming since we've had this cold spell, and I think the cutoff switch
isn't
adjusted correctly. The boiler never exceeded 2 lbs. back in the days
before
things started wearing out on the unit.
Can anyone enlighten me as to the proper adjustment procedure for the
steam
pressure cutoff?


Do you think we are nuts? Do you think we want to be accomplices to murder?