boiler chemical entry?

I use a pump. Relieve the pressure from the system, then pump in the chemicals. I have a powered setup with a chemical reservoir for such use, but I expect you could do the same with some sort of manual pump, or one of those little powered pumps that you can chuck into a cordless drill.

Joe

Couldn't you just pour it in the top through the vent?

I have a small closed system that only has about 29 gallons with no storage tank (EKO 40). I am building a storage tank even so with all pluming included it will still only be about 31-32 gallons as the tank will be non pressurized. You could let the system cool and bleed off any pressure through the relief valve( my relief valve is high in my system so I only lose a gallon or so). Then remove the 3/4" relief vale and screw in a 3/4" nipple/90/nipple (pointed down) . Take an old garden hose section about 5-7 feet long (old washer hose works great) that has the female coupler end and screw it on to the nipple. Stick the plain end into your bucket of chemicals (the chemical bucket needs to be about 2 feet higher than your boiler drain). Then place another short female threaded hose on your boiler drain plug fitting (mine is threaded with 3/4 pipe thread for a hose and filling) and place the plain end of that hose into a bucket with about 1 gallon of water in it. Then open the drain plug valve to allow water out of the boiler. The water in the bucket on the drain side will prevent simply draining your boiler and will siphon the needed chemicals into the boiler. Turn off the drain plug when done and replace your relief valve. If you use the nipple/90/nipple with the nipples pointing up you could pour you chemical into a funnel after you have drained enough out of your boiler to make room for the chemicals but you could get drenched with chemicals as the boiler burps out air. Like I said mine is a small system and this approach will need to be modified to work on a system with a large pressurized storage tank because you would have to use more chemicals. Cave2k

Just got a EKO 25 so please excuse my ignorance. What kind of chemicals are you putting in the water and why? I thought this was only necessary in open systems. Does everyone add chems?
Bob

On the make-up water feed I installed a screw on water filter with shutoff valves on each side. To add chemicals I just close the shutoff valves, remove the filter, add chemicals, open the valves, and drain a bit from the boiler valve. Then reinstall the filter. Easy to do!

Don

I put mine in through my boiler drain. I bought an adapter fitting which screws onto the hose threads on the drain valve, and the other side is a hose going to a small transfer pump in a 12qt. pail with the chemical in it. I start the pump, and then open the drain valve to let the pump push the chemical in. When all the fluid is gone, I close the drain and then shut the pump off. Kinda crude, but it works.

easternbob said:

Just got a EKO 25 so please excuse my ignorance. What kind of chemicals are you putting in the water and why? I thought this was only necessary in open systems. Does everyone add chems?
Bob

Click to expand...

When I bought my boiler I got two chemicals to use. the first was to clean the inside of oil and whatever from the manufacturer which was flushed after a short run period. The second was an oxygen robber that prevents or inhibits oxidation to the boiler internals. Mine is a small system with a small capacity (and no storage at present) and the cost of the chemicals was small compared to the boiler. Good insurance. All water has oxygen in it. A closed system only gets what you put in it but is still there, and of course an open system can get oxygen from the air. Cave2k

In case anyone is interested in adapting this idea-On all the industrial steam boilers I've operated, they use a "pressure pot" with a fill (for chemicals) a drain, a vent, and isolation valves, for adding chemicals off the boiler feed line. My thought is that you could probably adapt a small pressure tank with the necessary fittings and pipe it inline with a circulator or even on a parallel section. I can even see it made out of a relatively larger piece of pipe. It shouldn't need that much volume. Just fill it to overflow (you may be able to reuse any O2 free boiler water you drained out of the "pot") and let your circulator run the chemicals through the system. No extra pump or taking the pressure off the system. There's got to be someone here who could try this..................................

Mike