Suggestions for troubleshooting a schizophrenic boiler

Hello all, Wednesday and Thursday this week, our boiler (oil-Peerless TW-4) completely emptied its water twice each day. When I went to check on it this morning, it was completely full, right where we filled it last night. We’re at a loss in trying to determine the cause of this great discrepancy. We had a tech from our oil company check it out yesterday, and he checked for any signs of leaks and could find none. The leading theory is that our return line (which is unfortunately embedded in the slab) is leaky. But we have not seen any physical evidence of this. Is the return line a worthwhile angle to explore? Any other suggestions? Many thanks, Frank

fmb78

in Plumbing 10 years and 6 months ago

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eman134 | 10 years and 6 months ago

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one of my friends refers to me as a boiler whisperer

steam_man | 10 years and 6 months ago

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Frank, Here’s what I want you to do so we can help you: Watch your boiler’s water level as it runs through the firing cycle. Does the water in the gauge glass bounce up and down? How long into the firing cycle does it take before the water disappears? How long does it take before it reappears? Do you have an an automatic water feed? Does your boiler turn off due to a low water condition (ie does your low water cutoff shut down the boiler when the water level disappears)? The low water cutoff is most likely a small black box with a little light on top. When the shutdown occurs due to a low water condition the light will turn red. This will take a while and you will actually have to sit there and watch for quite a while. Welcome to the world of being a boilerman. Imagine what it was like for us before smartphones to fool around with while waiting 😛

eman134 | 10 years and 6 months ago

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as gennady stated, a leak in the return would only drop the water level 2 inches, due to the hartford loop http://inspectapedia.com/heat/Hartford_Loop_Piping_ITT_DJFs.jpg however if you do not have an automatic water feed which would compensate for the loss in water during each heating cycle, then a return leak could easily empty out the boiler…but surely the low water cutoff stops the boiler from firing before that happens

ellenlourie | 10 years and 6 months ago

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Boiler cannot be completely emptied from the leaks in return lines, because it must have hartford loop. ( does yours have it?) i would say check for restriction in return lines preventing condensate to return to boiler.