This section is your comprehensive guide on steam heating systems with articles about proper steam piping, boilers, pressure, venting, radiators, water quality, and more. We'll also walk you through troubleshooting steam system problems like noisy pipes.
The thermostat is out of calibration. If it is, the burner will be bouncing on and off. Make sure you use an ammeter when you're checking the calibration.
You may be asking for too much. Since a steam system is open to the atmosphere and constantly rusting and corroding, it's very difficult to keep the water pure. You shoul...
The boiler's water line is surging. Dirty water, a too-high pH, overfiring and improper near-boiler piping can all cause the boiler's water line to surge up and down. If ...
I was once on a problem steam job where the water seemed to vanish from the boiler as soon as the pressure hit its high limit and the burner shut off. There was an automa...
A guy called me to ask if I had any output ratings for some oddball steam radiators he needed to measure before he could replace the boiler. I looked them up and told him...
Due to the efforts of many sharp minds in the steam heating industry and simple economics, standing cast iron steam space heating systems are no longer wastefully being t...
Old boiler rooms often are home to steam-heating boilers. Our older cities are loaded with these, and lots of people (knuckleheads included) have had decades to mess with...
I started my career in the heating industry in 1970, when I was 20 years old. I was fresh out of college and my number in the Draft Lottery that year was 355. My father w...
Modular steam boiler systems can look very attractive when it comes time to replace an old steam-heating boiler. The people who sell these systems promise ease of install...
Here are some good tips for you. Base the size of the replacement boiler on the connected load, not the building’s heat loss. The boiler’s ability to produce steam must m...