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HVAC/ HYDRONICS 44 JANUARY 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com A few months back I did what was supposed to be a short article on steam. If you've been following along, thank you, you may have realized this took on a life of its own. We originally saw this as three articles, but due to the mail, phone calls and questions raised in classes we'll end up making five. But that's okay, because when it comes to education there's no such thing as too much! This is a continuation of this series and this part comes from an article originally written back in 1995. We pulled it out, dusted it off and have updated it to apply to today. This article starts with an old trick that many of you guys with 30 years or more in the business may remember. As for you apprentices and rookies, hang in there, you may learn a few things, a few important things too! As I write this, it's the beginning of November and predictions are for another cold winter in the Northeast. In fact, right now in Buffalo, N.Y., they are getting 70" of snow. It looks like it will be more "polar plunges," "polar vortexes" and just plain nasty, cold weather. That may be good for fuel dealers, but it's tough all around on equipment. With the nasty weather last year many ser- vice people saw a lot of steam boiler failures. Most of these were because the homeowners failed to flush the float type low-water cutoffs. One was even the failure of a boiler with a probe type cutoff, and another that had both a float and a probe! All of those failures were probably due to some bad service procedures, and, even worse, bad test procedures—but we'll get to that. Back in 1995 I originally said, "Contrary to what many believe, I like the probe and believe it is the way to go. One thing that keeps bugging me though, is that I'm not sure that all the boiler companies have them in the right place. I'm not an engineer, and don't pro- fess to be. I am just a service technician, but I sit there and wonder sometimes, a very dangerous thing if you know me!" As it came to pass the probe types now rule the roost today and some of the locations may still not be perfect, but that's just my opinion. Many years ago numerous old-timers used the following "trick-of-the-trade" to cure the problem of people not flushing low-water cutoffs. In Figure 1, we see the cold-water feed in the traditional place, and in Figure 2 it has been moved. The trick is, that whenever the consumer puts water into the boiler, the incoming feed water stirs up the muck in the low-water cutoff and helps keep the mud in suspension. Not a real cure for not flushing it, but maybe just enough in many cases to keep the boiler going until the next cleaning, at least that's what eth idea was. Since there is only one float type cutoff on the market, we ran this idea by the good folks out at McDonnell & Miller and they said don't do it, and remember that was twenty years ago! First, it will introduce water into the bowl of the cutoff and that is against the ASME certification on the boiler. Second, McDonnell & Miller doesn't want you Steam - Part 3 By GeorGe Lanthier Figure 1 Figure 2