How to Diagnose Leaks in a Steam Boiler | Ask This Old House
283,818
Published 2015-11-01
SUBSCRIBE to This Old House: bit.ly/SubscribeThisOldHouse
A homeowner's steam boiler is losing water, but there's no sign of a leak. Richard explains the problem and offers up a solution.
The homeowner was losing water because of a hole in the actual boiler sections that causes steam to leak into the exhaust pipe undetected. Ideally, Richard says steam boilers should never have to be refilled because the water should just continue to be re-circulated through the system.
Richard says the homeowner could keep the automatic water filler and the steam boiler would still work. However, that is wasting water, wasting oil to keep the boiler running and not very energy efficient.
Richard recommends installing a new heating system or a new steam boiler.
Later, in the workshop, Richard shows some other options for boiler replacement. One option is to install thermostatic radiator valves at each steam radiator. Another is to convert the steam radiators to hot water radiators by running an additional return pipe to each radiator.
To add air conditioning to the heating system, many people would remove the boiler and replace it with a forced air furnace and ductwork.
Another option for air conditioning would be to install wall mounted ductless units, like those manufactured by Mitsubishi HVAC [www.mitsubishipro.com/], which can also provide supplemental, or in some cases, whole house heating.
Steps for How to Diagnose Leaks in a Steam Boiler:
1. Set the thermostat at a high temperature to turn on the boiler, and leave it running during diagnosis.
2. Once the boiler has turned on, check the floor around the boiler. This would indicate a leak on the water side of the boiler.
3. Check all exposed piping, especially at the joints for a leak.
4. Check the main vent of the system to locate a leak.
5.If there are no leaks near the boiler, check the radiators in each room. Look for signs of water around the hand valve, at the connection of the steam pipe to the radiator, and at the air vent on each radiator.
6. If there are no obvious places where water is leaking, shut off the boiler and allow it to cool. When the boiler has cooled down, remove the vent pipe and inspect inside for any corrosion on the boiler itself.
7. Work with a qualified plumber or HVAC technician to repair any damaged or leaking areas.
About Ask This Old House TV:
Homeowners have a virtual truckload of questions for us on smaller projects, and we're ready to answer. Ask This Old House solves the steady stream of home improvement problems faced by our viewers—and we make house calls! Ask This Old House features some familiar faces from This Old House, including Kevin O'Connor, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook.
Looking for more step by step guidance on how to complete projects around the house? Join This Old House INSIDER to stream over 1,000 episodes commercial-free: bit.ly/2GPiYbH
Plus, download our FREE app for full-episode streaming to your connected TV, phone or tablet: www.thisoldhouse.com/pages/streaming-app
Follow This Old House and Ask This Old House:
Facebook: bit.ly/ThisOldHouseFB
Twitter: bit.ly/ThisOldHouseTwitter
bit.ly/AskTOHTwitter
Pinterest: bit.ly/ThisOldHousePinterest
Instagram: bit.ly/ThisOldHouseIG
bit.ly/AskTOHIG
For more on This Old House and Ask This Old House, visit us at: bit.ly/ThisOldHouseWebsite
How to Diagnose Leaks in a Steam Boiler | Ask This Old House
youtube.com/user/thisoldhouse/
All Comments (21)
-
This guy is the most knowledgeable guy I've seen on here. Thank you
-
He said it's cleaned every year, how the hell did the tech not see that hole when brushing it out? Seems a little fishy to me...
-
The HVAC guy who installed the automatic filler jerked the poor guy
-
We check them by flooding the boiler to the header. That will find a leak above the normal water line. Often you can't see them by a visual inspection.
-
I've been working on boilers for 30+ years and have never worked on a single pipe steam boiler, have always had a condensate line, receiver, pump. Interesting to see this but man, I bet it can hammer. The HVAC guy who visited three times, failed to diagnose the leak and charged him to install a makeup water system that the system wasn't designed for apparently, like me, never worked on a single pipe steam boiler system either.
-
I’m in NJ and have a steam boiler very similar to the one featured here. Been having problems with it and every “expert” I call has no experience with steam boilers. Need someone knowledgeable like this guy.
-
Richard is a plumber’s plumber. He Always provides helpful info.
-
The words no man ever wants to hear: "You're gonna have to get a new steam boiler."
-
Don't agree with the 50 yr old water comment. You loose water due to evaporation in a steam system. And a decent hvac tech should have found that during a maint
-
Wow, so it's a 5k-10k Problem. That makes me feel so much better now :o/
-
Another place is pin holes where the flame impinges on the bottom. The water leaks onto the burners and turns into steam.
-
I worked at Robinson supply for years. This guy Richard is a genius.
-
one of the best produced videos
-
Follow up video please. That was interesting.
-
When boiler starting to have a hole, you are done because you keep on putting fresh water into it means a lot of oxygen.
-
Richard is very knowledgeable.
-
Glad to see this I think I found the problem now have to check the warranty on the burnham oil burner.
-
I Mean I watched a few other videos n this guy was dah best....
-
Nice simple video. Not like other ppl where they talk your head off.
-
I wonder if the lack of an offset in the near-boiler piping and the lack of a drop header had anything to do with the boiler failure. The way the did the near boiler piping, it seems that it would cause problems with differential expansion of the pipes and the boiler sections.
