Boiler Down!

[JP11]

I'm on winter number 3. For some strange reason, I developed a very small leak on a storage tank fitting. It was for sure the soldered joint.

I cut away my plywood, dug out the cellulose. I set up a small funnel and hose to the center floor drain. I was just waiting on a slow day for my buddy the plumber, and some warm temps. Been like that a couple weeks.

Well.. the drip turned into a pretty big gusher. Of course I'm in Colorado, and the wife's at home. I talked her thru isolating the wood boiler, making sure both oil tanks were feeding the buderus, and opening the drains to start draining the system. Plumber buddy happened to have slow day. So he's gonna fix it, and add in my one valve that was left out (shutoff to isolate my return water protection, I didn't have a way to service the valve without draining the system)

Always much rather be home.. but it's ok when the plumber is a friend, and the wife doesn't panic.

JP

 

[maple1]

Hope you get back up & running quickly.

I am quite sure that if I were to experience this situation, the last 4 words of your post would not apply to me.

 

[JP11]

She's stubborn. She'd rather me talk her through how to fix something.. than call someone in.

Our best feat, speaker phone.. I talked her through an oil boiler nozzle change. I used to run biodiesel,and it needed cleaning and changing every 6 or 8 weeks. I tried to stretch it too much once.

 

[harttj]

FaceTime is great. I talked someone how to relight my boiler. Can see exactly what they are seeing and talk it thru.

 

[Eric Johnson]

There's a lot of stuff my wife won't do (ahem), but fooling around with the heating system isn't one of them. She doesn't seem to mind that at all. I even talked her through switching over from wood to gas once when I was out of town (a couple of switches and valves), and also explained over the phone how to reset the thermostat on the water heater when I switched back to electric and left town without doing it.

 

[JP11]

I think it's fixed. Haven't gotten a pic from my wife yet. I THINK that the tanks are all uncovered. (cellulose mess just waiting to happen)

Last plan I heard was that the plumber was going to setup a hose to slowly fill the tanks back up. I don't get home till 7 tomorrow night.

Not bad. They said the longest part of the job was draining the tanks. I had PLANNED to have that done when they got there, but they had an opening in the schedule.. so I guess I had to pay them to pump the tanks instead of letting gravity do it slow.

Oh well.

JP

 

[velvetfoot]

Who originally sweated the fitting?

 

[JP11]

The same plumber. Got to be something odd. It went 3 seasons before leaking.

 

[The Weimar]

Good luck with the repair JP, hope it holds up. I am all too familiar with leaks and the problems that they can cause.....

 

[velvetfoot]

It sounds like the insulation is a mess. Will you redo it with something else besides cellulose? Seems like there's pluses and minuses for the different materials.

 

[Fred61]

Got to be something odd. It went 3 seasons before leaking.

I recently had a solder joint leak on my distribution piping that had gone 6 seasons. It was a difficult joint to solder in the first place up on the ceiling near combustables and in a tangle of other tubing. I replaced a tee and a short piece of tubing. A post mortem examination revealed that I had burned the flux which produced a void in the solder which was about as close to a leak that you could get without actually leaking.

 

[JP11]

I guess I mis-interpreted a message from my wife. She my dad came by and said the panels were clear. I thought she was saying the plywood was off the box... He hadn't been at the boiler repair.. He was out at the barn cutting wood, and had seen the snow come off the roof.. the SOLAR panels were clear. Box still intact. Well, other than the 4x4 piece I pulled to get at the leak. I'm just gonna stuff a few batts in, and make it a hinged panel where I hacked it off.

Gotta find my male to male hose adapter, and fill the boiler back up. Looks like the airlines have screwed up my ride home, so I won't be able to get to the boiler till Wed afternoon.. BUT.. it comes with a payday that will more than cover 10 visits from the plumber. Win some, lose some.

JP