Boiler is back!

[dreamshark]

Josh showed up at 8:20am with the replacement gas valve, which is actually a little larger and more complicated than I realized, but still doesn't look like something that should cost over $1000.

tldr; boiler seems to be working great now. Crisis averted. Details below are mostly for me. If you happen to have hot water heat in your house it might be of interest to you. 


As before, Josh spent a long time adjusting and checking things after he installed the part. He verified that the gas pressure on the boiler side of the valve was now in the recommended range, then topped off the water in the system and bled the radiators. This was more complicated than it sounds. You add water by opening not one but TWO of the multiple valve handles on the maze of water pipes around the boiler, a little at a time, alternating with running up two flights of stairs to bleed the top radiator.

This gauge is on the left side of the boiler, low enough down to be hard to see. The bottom gauge measures water pressure, which was initially so low that it didn't even register on the gauge. After adjustments the water pressure is now where it should be (15-20). Water temperature (top gauge) is still registering low, but is clearly climbing now that the gas pressure is up. It should reach a max temp around 170F (80C), probably in a few hours. 

Comments

[quadong]

Hard to judge scale on your top photo, but actually it does look to me like a part that might be $1000. I've learned in my professional life that anytime you buy *anything*, if you didn't know the price already, it's safe to figure at least a grand. I know this isn't lab equipment, but it seems in the same category. Or another way to put it, if that was going into my car, $1000 wouldn't surprise me.

+1 to having heat.

[dreamshark]

Without scale, it looks kind of like an engine. Actually, it's more the size of a carburetor (and has a vaguely similar function). Back when cars actually had carburetors, they wouldn't have cost $1000, but maybe they would now. The boiler guy described it as a "valve" so I imagined something much smaller.

And the whole flipping boiler only cost about $6000.

[bibliofile]

Congrats on successful repair of the boiler!

> You add water by opening not one but TWO of the multiple valve handles on the maze of water pipes around the boiler, a little at a time, alternating with running up two flights of stairs to bleed the top radiator.

Or having an accomplice up there with a walkie talkie or cell phone?

[carbonel]

Yikes, that is expensive. I don't know if a service contract would cover that. (My failing parts were critical but not expensive, I suspect. The most recent one was a thermocouple.)

[laramie]

Yay! For having your boiler in good working area for many winters to come!