AboutJ Cook Expertise With 25+ years experience, I am familiar with residential, commercial, and industrial HVAC equipment including but not limited to boilers, chillers, reciprocating and screw compressors. I am trained in all manners of control wiring.
Experience I currently have three HVAC licenses and Refrigeration license by the State of North Carolina. I have been in this field for over twenty years. I have been a service technician for a contractor and also worked at a state college in the repair and maintenance of steam lines and equipment. I am currently the Building Maintenance Superintendent for a municipality.
Question I have a 50+ yr old Bryant hot water gravity boiler system in my home. I mistakenly added water when it was hot and now it is continually feeding water and discharging water through the overflow pipe. The water pressure was at about 8 lbs and someone told me that it was too low. I added the water with the manual feed until it was 12 lbs. This created the problem. I tried removing water at the boiler to reduce the pressure back to 8lbs but it keeps refeeding water and increases the pressure back to 12 lbs on its own. We are in an endless loop. How can I rebalance the water and get it to stop overflowing? I would appreciate any suggestions you may have. I have had trouble fining anyone in my area that has experience with old boilers and they also flooded the boiler last year. I can't find anyone who knows how to fix it. Thank you.
Answer A lesson learned, the someone who had you add water has created a problem. Overpressurizing the system most likely damaged the relief valve and the automatic water feed. The water feed should be adjustable and needs to be lowered enough to maintain water level but not overpressurize the boiler. The first item to replace is the relief valve at the overflow with the exact specs as the original then work with the feeder to see if you can fill the boiler without activating the relief. Thanks J
