I just inherited a one pipe steam heating system in a house I just bought.
I never had a steam system before and had no idea about how they work. The
property was bank owned and vacant, and everything had been winterized. I
had a plumber come out and get the system started and he gave me a crash
course in how they work, what to do, etc. Mine had a ton of crud in it and
he said it needed a new blow down valve and a new site glass (which had a
leaking fitting). He didn't have the parts with him but was going to come
back in a week to do the work. In the meantime, the newly turned on gas
service had a slight leak in the main gas shutoff valve, so I called the gas
company who came out and fixed that. The guy knew all about steam heaters
so I had him fix the blow down valve and site glass while he was there.

In the process, it turned out that there was crud blocking the return flow
into the float valve and also crud built up where the main bottom drain
valve was in the return line from the radiators. Opening that main drain
valve did nothing because it was so blocked up. So, just as a thought, in
addition to opening up the blow down valve did you try opening the main
bottom drain valve that is in the return pipe coming back from the
radiators? If that had enough crud in it, maybe that would block the return
and caused the pressure in the system to go up too high.

Keep in mind that I am completely new to all of this, so I am just taking a
guess here.

"Sue" wrote in message
...
On Nov 6, 10:38 am, Mark wrote:
On Nov 6, 9:29 am, Sue wrote:





Hi all-
Run across a confounding problem with my steam heating system.
It is a one pipe system, Burnham gas boiler, has 6 radiators on two
floors.

The issue I am having is that the Pressuretrol is set to 2PSI for the
main tank, yet the internal syphon gauge regularly goes up to 8PSI.
Around the time the internal gauge hits 8PSI, the furnace clicks off.
The radiators are pretty darn hot when the cycle runs.

This has been going on for a few weeks and is, I think, the core
problem.

However, just yesterday, the system turned on, went up to 8PSI,
clicked off, but no heat came through the radiators.

Any ideas on the cause of each problem? I would guess they are
related, but am stumped as to the cause.

Many thanks,
Ryan

can you feel the steam pipes leading out of the boiler,,,

are they hot?

where do they stop being hot?

Are the air valves in the radiators opening to allow the steam to
travel towards them?

Mark- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

There is water in the boiler.
It was in the sight glass, plus I just drained it to flush it.
Waiting now for it to completely cool off before I dump new water in.

So, the steam pipes are hot, and parts of the radiators heat up, just
not a lot.
The air valves are working, at least as of 2 days ago, and it is a
system wide issue, so do not think it is those.
Which leads me to believe somehow the pressure in the boiler is not
escaping into the system, as the boiler seems to have sufficient
pressure, but the pipes are not getting it.
But I can not imagine there being a clog near the boiler as it was
just installed in 2000, and those are big pipes, and i never have even
heard of the pipes clogging?

Many thanks for the ideas, this is helpful.

I did have my local plumber come in to do the annual maintenance, but
of course this problem did not occur while he was here. Not averse to
calling him back, just want some idea of what is wrong prior to doing
so.

Thanks again
Ryan