Came home yesterday while wife was cooking supper. Noticed a "different" smell in parts of the house...sort of like a "electrical burn" smell...looked around and found nothing so I thought maybe it's got something to do with the roast in the oven.
Just before we sat down to eat I figure I should check the boiler since the Mrs. has a habit of not putting in enough wood for a long burn. As soon as I start down the basement stairs I sense a smell unlike what it normally would smell like. As soon as I approached the boiler I see what the cause may be and my heart skips a beat....boiler water temp is almost 210 degrees and pressure is 30 psi! Seems the Mrs. turned on the fan switch timer(WG calls it a purge timer) to load it up earlier and the switch stayed stuck so the fan never turned off. Fortunately Wood Gun shuts down at 210 degrees so water never boiled and pressure relief valve never opened so no mess to contend with. We will not rely on that timer switch anymore unless we will stay there to be sure it winds down to zero and shuts down ...will just use a thermostat to call for heat and force the boiler fan on if it's not already running when it's time to reload.
Anybody have similar experiences?? Do all boilers have this built in protection to avoid boiling the water? What would have been the potential disaster if the unit never shut down and water got to over 212 degrees?
Just before we sat down to eat I figure I should check the boiler since the Mrs. has a habit of not putting in enough wood for a long burn. As soon as I start down the basement stairs I sense a smell unlike what it normally would smell like. As soon as I approached the boiler I see what the cause may be and my heart skips a beat....boiler water temp is almost 210 degrees and pressure is 30 psi! Seems the Mrs. turned on the fan switch timer(WG calls it a purge timer) to load it up earlier and the switch stayed stuck so the fan never turned off. Fortunately Wood Gun shuts down at 210 degrees so water never boiled and pressure relief valve never opened so no mess to contend with. We will not rely on that timer switch anymore unless we will stay there to be sure it winds down to zero and shuts down ...will just use a thermostat to call for heat and force the boiler fan on if it's not already running when it's time to reload.
Anybody have similar experiences?? Do all boilers have this built in protection to avoid boiling the water? What would have been the potential disaster if the unit never shut down and water got to over 212 degrees?
