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Posted by Pearson on November 01, 2008 at 11:15:00:
We are at the inspection phase of having our new gas fired boiler installed. It is a steam system.
Our boiler often runs with "just enough" water in it to prevent low water cutoff. What I mean by this is that the water level will drop to the bottom of the sight glass where it can only be seen when looking down through the glass. After the flame turns off, the water level returns to the middle of the sight glass.
When the boiler first starts up, the water moves up and down in the glass quite a bit, and will often trigger the low water sensor. This then shuts the boiler off, which causes the water level to rise to the mid point of the glass, at which time this repeats. Boiler fires, steam created, water level drops, low water cutoff, boiler stops, water condenses, sight glass level raises, repeat!
Boiler Setup
Water at Mid Glass
Water just above cut-off
If running water at this level and cycling is unexpected, what types of things can be attributed to running this behavior? My previous boiler did not do this.