Econoburn 150 question

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jashcroft

Member
May 5, 2009
62
Western PA
This is me second year with the Econoburn 150 and I am very satisfied with it's performance. There is one thing I've noticed this year that didn't happen last year. There as been some water coming from my blow-off valve/pipe that's located on top of the unit. It's usually not much. Looks kinda like someone spilled a cup of water on the floor of my building. Is this normal? Could the pressure in my expansion tank need adjusted? How much of a concern is this? Everything else seems normal with the boiler.
 
Not normal. What does your pressure read on the left side of the unit? Your T&P is probably 30 PSI. If your system is not over pressurized the valve could have some sort of buildup at the gasket seat. Most times when you try to reseat these valves they leak worse. You might want to buy one to have on hand and then try to reseat. Be ready to shut down the water supply or isolate the boiler.
 
NNYorker said:
Not normal. What does your pressure read on the left side of the unit? Your T&P is probably 30 PSI. If your system is not over pressurized the valve could have some sort of buildup at the gasket seat. Most times when you try to reseat these valves they leak worse. You might want to buy one to have on hand and then try to reseat. Be ready to shut down the water supply or isolate the boiler.


The pressure on the left side is about 12 psi. That's one of the first things I checked. So I don't think the system is over pressurized. Tonight I decided to watch the boiler for a little while to find try to figure out how much water is coming out and when.

When the temp. in the boiler drops below the set point (180 deg.) enough to make the fan go the the high speed setting, water drips out of the blow off pipe. It's just a drip at a time and stops about the time the boiler temp. reaches the set point again. I placed a coffee can under the pipe to measure how much water I'm losing. I'll check it in a few hours and then again in the morning.

What do you think? The valve needs reseated or replaced?
 
Alot of times if you're getting drips from the pressure relief, you may have some dirt preventing it from closing all the way. Stand clear of the pipe and manually open the pressure relief valve just for a second and then close. That will usually clear any dirt blocking the seal. If after a few tries it still leaks then I would agree with NNYorker and change the valve at you first convenience and before it leaks too bad.
 
Also, not to steal your thread but if you can take a look at my post " Econoburn 150- first burn-need help" I would appreciate any knowledge you can supply. Thanks.
 
I checked the coffee can this morning and it had about 6-8oz of water in it and the blow off pipe was dripping. I think I was wrong about the the dripping occurring only when the high speed fan kicked on. I think it's almost a constant drip.

I think I'll wait for a milder temp. day to shut the boiler down and reseat or replace the blow off valve.
 
b33p3r said:
Alot of times if you're getting drips from the pressure relief, you may have some dirt preventing it from closing all the way. Stand clear of the pipe and manually open the pressure relief valve just for a second and then close. That will usually clear any dirt blocking the seal. If after a few tries it still leaks then I would agree with NNYorker and change the valve at you first convenience and before it leaks too bad.

I took your suggestion and manually opened the pressure relief valve for just a second, waited a couple minutes and did it again. It hasn't dripped any water since! I guess some dirt was blocking the seal. Thanks!
 
Glad it worked for you.
 
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