The wonders of physics

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mynx

Member
Sep 7, 2021
48
Chatham, MI (UP)
I have to laugh at myself. I think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person but sometimes things slip by. You may recall from some of my earlier posts that I had quite an adventure with leaks in my Garn two seasons ago. Last year went great with absolutely no problems, but I am still very paranoid about water on the floor in the boiler room and every time I go in there I cautiously peer around the back hoping not to see water. Well, in my preseason prep for this year, I checked the water chemistry and checked the water level. I was surprised to see the water level down a good 6 to 8 inches from where I thought it should be. Of course, I immediately thought there must be a leak someplace but I didn’t know about it. I went ahead and filled the tank up to 3 inches below the top and started my burn season. As it hasn’t been terribly cold yet I have been only firing it once a day to once every other day and only up to the mid 150s. It’s getting colder and we’re supposed to get snow tonight so I built a big fire to bring the temperature up. I went back to check on it an hour or so after I lit the fire and low and behold there is water all over the floor. It immediately dawned on me that water expands when it gets hot! In fact, water expands 4% between room temperature and boiling. I didn’t boil it, getting to 182° but certainly enough to expand the water which ended up on my floor. Again, I had a chuckle as I was mopping the floor. If nothing else, my floor is clean :)