major major problem--melted insulation and pipe leaks--help!!

[bluegreenduck]

We have an EKO 60. Yesterday it was warm enough that we let the fire die out. Last night my husband turned the pump off. Today, the fire rekindled. All the insulation on the pipe near the stove is melted. Water was bubbling up from the pipe that leads from the stove building to the house. The line enters the house in the basement. It was leaking there, too and flooded the basement.
My question is what actually happened today? Then I need to know how to fix it and prevent it from reoccurring. My husband designed the system and built it last summer. It has worked wonderfully until today.The aforementioned husband has responded by alternately breaking things and going catatonic. I don't reallly blame him, but he says he absolutely will not work on fixing things up again. I need to learn, and learn fast! Any help at all would be great.

 

[brant2000]

I'm really sorry to hear that happened. I'm always afraid about something like that happening. From your description, I can imagine without flow, the temperature and resulting pressure inside the pipes leading to your house skyrocketed. I guess you have pex lines running to your house. The pressure rating of any plastic lines diminishes quickly once you get above normal (200ish) temperatures. Do you happen to know if there is an issue with the relief valve(s) installed on your EKO? I would start by removing all of the remaining pipe insulation, to get a better look at any visible signs of leaks/pipe damage. At least it happened at the end of the heating season. I know it seems really bad now, but I'm sure the fixes won't be as bad as the incident looked. Good luck!

 

[maple1]

Some things are hard to diagnose through a computer screen. But it sounds like maybe the pump you said that was turned off, didn't get turned back on again when the fire was re-lit? So maybe you had a severe overheat, that might have ruptured your piping somewhere? But we weren't there, and can't see anything. There should have been no need to manually turn a pump off when the fire goes out - it should turn off & on by itself as heat comes & goes. Manual operation can lead to things going bad when the manual operation gets interrupted. Sounds like maybe a design flaw in the system that allowed this to happen. I'd advise to get someone there who knows some about this stuff.

As for the catatonic reaction, and turning of the back on the situation - I'll stop there & just say that's one for Dr. Phil.

 

[woodsmaster]

Sounds like there is no dump zone for overheat. Should have some kind of over heat protection, an automag hooked to some fin tube above the boiler or something in case the pump fails.

 

[stee6043]

I'm with Maple. Your husband made a poor decision which prevented the boiler from protecting itself (which it would have done had it been on).

If your pex is ruptured it will need to be replaced (the ruptured portions). If it ruptured underground.....you'll be happy to know the spring thaw is well underway. Nothing like a little trenching in early spring to really bring out the mud pies!

In all seriousness, good luck. For future reference if your system has the ability to manually disable the circ pump you should make sure that gets changed. And also perhaps your husband needs to learn how to set the low limit on pump launch so he doesn't feel the need to shut the entire boiler down (if that's what happened here) to stop the pump from running.

 

[bluegreenduck]

Thank you for answering! There was indeed a release valve installed, but for whatever reason it did not work. It leads to the outside of the shed,but it was dry back there. I was pretty sure that some digging was going to have to happen, but that's ok. We have been shutting the boiler down manually, so if that's wrong, then things need to be reworked. Sigh. I am going to have to learn all about this, aren't I? At this point, I am just glad that it is spring and that I know where to go to get answers (here).

 

[brant2000]

Before digging up the lines, I would definitely check everything that's exposed first. I would be surprised to see more than one location that ruptured, since any significant rupture should have provided enough relief to keep the pressure in check.

 

[maple1]

Can't help it - I just have to say.

I just did our heating system all over here in our house with a new boiler a year and a half ago.

If our system suffered such a major malfunction as this, and I turned my back on it - when I turned back around, I'm pretty sure I would find myself suddenly alone and there wouldn't be any more 'our'.

I'll leave the rest with Phil...

 

[goosegunner]

Before digging up the lines, I would definitely check everything that's exposed first. I would be surprised to see more than one location that ruptured, since any significant rupture should have provided enough relief to keep the pressure in check.

Is there pitch from the boiler area to the house?

Is your pipe the in the drain tile type?

If so you could have a break near boiler house and water could be flowing through drain tile into the house.

gg

 

[brant2000]

Can't help it - I just have to say.

I just did our heating system all over here in our house with a new boiler a year and a half ago.

If our system suffered such a major malfunction as this, and I turned my back on it - when I turned back around, I'm pretty sure I would find myself suddenly alone and there wouldn't be any more 'our'.

I'll leave the rest with Phil...

I agree, but have to provide a little defense. This is certainly an honest mistake which most of us (I have done it, but was lucky enough to hear the PRV popping off on my way out the door) have either done before or have had very close calls like it. Having to patch up a few pipes is much less devastating than a house fire or any other major catastrophy.

 

[Standingdead]

We all make mistakes, even us old timers. Its always tricky figuring how much wood to burn to get the boiler up to temp this time of year. I find less is better and to have complete burns. This time of year I burn lower BTU wood like Pine in small hot fires that burn out in a couple hours.

 

[easternbob]

Wow! cut this guy and his wife some slack!
She posted here looking for some help. Everyone throwing stones at the poor guy who made a mistake, should look at their glass houses and think about helping the current situation and stop pointing out the obvious mistake that was made.

 

[Jags]

Lets keep the responses helpful.

 

[flyingcow]

Kudos for DIY work. And tell him to keep his chin up. We've been there before in some form or another. If you were closer I'd load up the van of hearth members and visit.

 

[ihookem]

It seems you turned off the pump and there was still enough heat in the boiler to over heat the system. It seems he forgot the pressure relief valve. I have over heated my boiler several times but turning off the boiler. I turn off the boiler form the breaker cause my pump runs all the time cause my controller is not working properly right now. ( Going in for repair soon) It takes very little wood to over heat the boiler. Fix it and keep burning dude

 

[rkusek]

Sounds like there is no dump zone for overheat. Should have some kind of over heat protection, an automag hooked to some fin tube above the boiler or something in case the pump fails.

Overheat protection like this above would cover a power outage, pump failure, controller failure, or operator error. This costs about $400(40ft basboard+valve+pipe) for a $10k system.

 

[MarkW]

Good that you're going to take over. He'll come around once he cools off. Mistakes are made by all and we learn from them and move on. At least this happened now rather than mid-season. Now you've got the summer to recover the system and be ready for next winter. Happy burning!

 

[maple1]

Wow! cut this guy and his wife some slack!
She posted here looking for some help. Everyone throwing stones at the poor guy who made a mistake, should look at their glass houses and think about helping the current situation and stop pointing out the obvious mistake that was made.

If that was for me, I wasn't intending to throw stones at a mistake.

I was just saying that if I had made such a mistake here at my place, then walked away from it leaving my wife to deal with it - well, she wouldn't think very much of me.

To the OP: there's lots of help here - if more is needed to get through this, most times pictures of the situation would help. So don't be shy about posting pics of the situation & trouble spot. I'm thinking pics of everything would help, from all angles of the boiler, to the other end where things get into the house. But maybe you've since got things under control with some local help?

 

[heaterman]

I have learned over the years that if a person (myself included) is not screwing up, that person is most likely dead.

The only real mistake is not taking the time to learn from the ones we all make.

Just keep on truckin........