Comments on: Weil McLain Oil Fired Boilers Buyers Guide https://wetheadmedia.com/weil-mclain-oil-fired-boilers-buyers-guide/ Plumbing, Heating and Pool Repair Guides Sat, 21 Sep 2013 01:06:44 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.11 By: Roy Keys https://wetheadmedia.com/weil-mclain-oil-fired-boilers-buyers-guide/comment-page-1/#comment-3589 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:02:54 +0000 https://wetheadmedia.com/?p=7368#comment-3589 Our church, Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, Baltimore Md, has one of your oil fired steam boilers which has performed fairly well over its life. It was installed in 1995. It is now 14 years old and has four zones, each with a thermostat. Lately it has been operating too well. It can not be shut down using a thermostat and one must use the emergency switch to do so. It was cycling on and off when the pressure went to 6psi. This goes on all the time and the temperature of the church rises to 80 degrees when the thermostats are set on 45. The boiler comes on and off every couple minutes. This has been going on for 3 months now. My personal thought is something is wrong with the thermostats, wiring, relays, or the motor controlled valves. Our oil supplier is on the case and diagnosing the problem. My thought is the wiring is suspect as it has been jerry-rigged in the past years, looks frayed and very sloppy. Not at all workmanlike.

My basic question is how much useful time is left on such a boiler with all this on-and-off operation going on?

A well maintained boiler I would suppose would last longer than one that has been neglected over 14 years.

Another question is the low water cutoff valve. How often should one blow down the system at this valve?

I would personally like to replace the whole heating plant – the boiler, the controls, the wiring, the thermostats and most of the leaking piping if not all of it. But I would like the opinion of the boiler maker before submitting such a proposal to the trustees.

Many thanks in advance,

Roy Keys

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