3. Shut off power to the unit.
4. Remove the float and switch and visually check the float
and bellows. With probe types remove, clean and inspect
the probe, Figure 4.
5. Replace the probe and/or the float assembly back into
the boiler replacing any defective components and leave the
feed valve closed.
6. Turn the power back on, the burner should not start.
7. Fill the boiler back up to its normal operating level.
As the boiler reached its "minimum safe level" the burner
should have restarted proving the boiler was "off on low
water."
By doing it this way you determine that it was working
when you got there and was working when you were done.
A great idea, since nothing beats fixing it! In addition, if it
doesn't work "as designed' you can fix it. If we can get the
customers to really flush the cutoff's weekly and we check
and service the cutoffs properly yearly the boilers their con-
nected to might just be around a while.
As long as were talking about water levels and such let
me give you some more of my tricks-of-the-trade. But first,
let's see how good your knowledge of things are on items
you work with every day.
Starting off, do you know the flow rates for most pipe
sizes that would be used on a fresh water (potable) feed to a
residential steam boiler, specifically ½" and ¾" pipe and at
a working pressure of 55-60 psi?
Second, do you know the average water content of a typi-
cal four section steam boiler for oil (about 135,000 Btus)?
How about the same boiler for gas? Now comes a couple of
dilemmas, how do you fill that boiler slowly and how do
you protect the boiler from overfilling both manually and
automatically? We're going to take that up next time.
See ya!
*George Lanthier is the owner of Firedragon Academy,
a Massachusetts Certified School teaching both gas and oil.
Firedragon is also a publishing firm publishing George's over
60 books and manuals on gas and oil heating and HVAC sub-
jects. He is a CETP, NATE, NORA, PMAA and PMEF Proctor
and has been a Massachusetts Certified Instructor since 1975.
He can be reached at 608 Moose Hill Road, Leicester, MA
01524. His phone is 508-421-3490 and his website can be
found at FiredragonEnt.com
46 JANUARY 2015 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
HVAC/ HYDRONICS
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