Leak from pressure release valves. Need plumbing help.

Hi. This is for hot water baseboard heating system. The first burnham boiler in a series of 4 (one back flow preventer that then splits off to 4 boilers) has had persistent leak all winter so far. It even leaks when heat has been off all day and the boiler is cold. the pressure valve reads 20 psi and the prv is supposed to be 30 psi. The following has happened… 1\. Replaced PRV 2\. Within two weeks, hot water stops circulating 3\. Replaced circulator pump – heat back but still leaking 4\. Replace expansion tank – still leaking 5\. Placed check valve just before inflow to boiler – still leaking and now the other 3 are leaking. This is first winter that the building has been full and all 4 boilers have been active. I would like to fix but what will happen if I just give up and let it leak? Please help!

al4sure

in Heating 12 years and 6 months ago

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eman134 | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Sounds like a poorly desined system with an undersized expansion tank and a pressure reducin valve set too high…the pressure aue should be in the 15-17 psi level…for a free consultation contact me via my info on my profile

al4sure | 12 years and 6 months ago

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Thank you very much! I inherited this system and suspected something screwy like that was going on… I will look into it!

Master Plvmber | 12 years and 6 months ago

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I don’t like, and it’s not code compliant, to have one backflow preventer (BFP) or pressure reducing valve (the technical abbreviation for PRV) for multiple boilers because of this type of end result. Most often, multiple boilers are used to heat radiators on different floors (levels) of a building and therefore have different pressure requirements.  If your 4 boilers serve a single system, acting as a single heat source, then you’ve got a great deal of expansion there that needs to be dealt with and, again, that check valve may be fighting you by not allowing a drop in pressure when the boilers cool. That would affect all the boilers equally. Not cool. It all depends on how it’s configured, where the expansion tank sits in the piping, and what size it is.
Also, you don’t need a check valve on the incoming water for water boilers. That’s for steam only.   It just sounds like you’ve got a corner-cut installation there that someone would have to come take a look at and figure out.