OH_Varmntr
Burner of stored sunlight
I fired the Central Boiler 6048 up last night. I reburied my ThermoPex last week while I had a trencher here, and ran it through the concrete basement wall instead of up and over the sill plate like I had it before. After reconnecting the plumbing, I started a fire at about midnight last night/this morning. Temps were up to 90ish when I went to bed, then I woke up at 1:30am and it was 170ish. Clicked on the thermostat and went to bed.
This morning when the alarm went off at 6am, the digital water temp readout inside the house was reading 200.7 degrees! I had never seen it much above 191 after it was done firing, so I ran out to find the big girl steaming like a steam locomotive. I could hear it boiling inside, but I still had plenty of water.
Temp controller on boiler. Later found this to be the highest it will read. Water was well above 211 degrees.
I found the draft door to be stuck open about 1/2". This summer I had periodically opened the door to check things out, and a few times I had a BlueJay fly out. Well this time, he apparently got stuck in the draft door opening and died.
The birds body held the draft door open. This was all that's left of him.
Once I verified the door closed, I went to work with the pump still running to get some BTUs out of the water to cool it down gradually. Once I got home, the temp controller on the burner still read 211 and inside the house read 76! I will say this, the Taco 009 pump is one tough pump. The boiling water caused the pump to cavitate, and it ran throughout the day without any water going through the pump. The motor housing was so hot it would boil water off as soon as it touched it. The paint even began to discolor on the motor housing.
I separated the pump to check to see if it would still run and I'll be danged that it still ran, albeit with quite a bit of noise. Well I cooled the pump down so it wouldn't cavitate and put it back together and it started pumping again and quieted down. It's been good since, but I have a replacement cartridge ready to go just in case. I might even buy another motor too.
I should have known to double check everything, but I didn't, and I nearly created a big issue for myself.
This morning when the alarm went off at 6am, the digital water temp readout inside the house was reading 200.7 degrees! I had never seen it much above 191 after it was done firing, so I ran out to find the big girl steaming like a steam locomotive. I could hear it boiling inside, but I still had plenty of water.
Temp controller on boiler. Later found this to be the highest it will read. Water was well above 211 degrees.
I found the draft door to be stuck open about 1/2". This summer I had periodically opened the door to check things out, and a few times I had a BlueJay fly out. Well this time, he apparently got stuck in the draft door opening and died.
The birds body held the draft door open. This was all that's left of him.
Once I verified the door closed, I went to work with the pump still running to get some BTUs out of the water to cool it down gradually. Once I got home, the temp controller on the burner still read 211 and inside the house read 76! I will say this, the Taco 009 pump is one tough pump. The boiling water caused the pump to cavitate, and it ran throughout the day without any water going through the pump. The motor housing was so hot it would boil water off as soon as it touched it. The paint even began to discolor on the motor housing.
I separated the pump to check to see if it would still run and I'll be danged that it still ran, albeit with quite a bit of noise. Well I cooled the pump down so it wouldn't cavitate and put it back together and it started pumping again and quieted down. It's been good since, but I have a replacement cartridge ready to go just in case. I might even buy another motor too.
I should have known to double check everything, but I didn't, and I nearly created a big issue for myself.