Last night, my heat wasn’t on, so I went and checked and saw the water in the little glass tube on the boiler (I’m sorry, I don’t know what it’s called) was low. I added some water, about halfway up the glass tube, the boiler came back on, and I thought everything was fine. But this morning, the radiators were cold again, I went back and checked, and the water was too low again, not empty, but low in the glass tube. I added water and the heat is on for now, but what could be going on? One radiator is leaking a little bit, but could that be enough to cause this?

One other possibly important detail: the other day, my husband thought the tube was empty, added some water and then realized it wasn’t empty, it was completely full (water came out of the relief valve, I guess). He doesn’t know how it would have been overfull any more than I know how it got to be so low. So the water level seems to be fluctuating weirdly.

Any insights appreciated. Thanks so much!
Suzy

 

Master Plvmber: You probably have a leaking return pipe. Check around for the pipes that run along the cellar floor and see if there are any wet spots or if the pipe disappears into the floor at any point. If it does, that’s probably where you’re losing water.

An automatic water feeder is not completely reliable, so it may be failing. Same goes for your low water cut off device if it’s a separate unit.

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