How often should you drain and refill a one pipe steam heat boiler?

If the water quality’s bad enough to affect your water feeder, then you’ve got something to deal with there, but dark to light brown is pretty normal so I’d look elsewhere.

Master Plvmber

in Boiler Repair 13 years and 2 months ago

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jstsrfn | 13 years and 2 months ago

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How often should you drain and refill a one pipe steam heat boiler?  From various professionals and from my Internet searches, we’ve heard once a week to clear out the dirty water and we’ve heard only once a season since fresh water brings in new sediment and fresh oxygen creates more rust.

Master Plvmber | 13 years and 2 months ago

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It’s different for every boiler. The goal is to remove collected solids. If you find yourself removing clumps of sediment when you flush it once a month, then you should try every two weeks. If the water looks ok and flushes smoothly once per heating season, then that’s all you need to do.

allans | 13 years and 2 months ago

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thanks justsurfin for posting – I have the same system and now have an answer. masterplvme, thanks for a great response as usual!

SewardWasRight | 13 years and 2 months ago

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Hey masterplvmber – ever time I drain mine – say once every few days, the water comes out from dark brown to light brown. Makes me think my wet returns are sending rusty water back into the boiler? It is actually making my low water feed machine tell my boiler that it needs more water, giving me high water issues. Urghh… SWR