Boiler Breakdown

Last week Friday we were informed that the boiler in the house was not working. It is an industrial sized boiler, (which sounds great, except when you are trying to get it fixed, as I will explain)

The house was cold, and the temperature over the weekend was supposed to drop to below zero, air temperature. 

Burnham KV905 low pressure steam boiler

So I did what you do. I called Teko Mechanical, who installed this boiler in 2022 (!). But they said they don't work on that anymore!

They gave me the name of Butters-Fetting, a big mechanical service company in the greater Milwaukee area.

But first I tried Gross Heating and Cooling, since they're installing some additional air conditioning in the house this spring. With earlier conversation with their rep, I got the idea that they had been asked to quote for this installation, but didn't get the job. I figured that they would be able to go there and fix the problem.

They called me almost immediately and said they can't work on this system.

So I called Butters-Fetting, and the sent a person right away. (A down boiler is an emergency in Wisconsin in the winter) Their guy there for three hours. He called me up and said he could not fix it. So what do I do now? He didn't know

I called back Teko, and they gave me the name of PBBS, who only works on industrial boilers. 

So I called PBBS, and they said they do not work on residential units. I told him this might be in a residence but it is an industrial boiler. He said, nope. And he also said they don't work on Burnham boilers, so I guess that was that.

From PBBS I got the name of Becker Boiler, but at the same time got a name from Brother Matthew, of their boiler guy - a fellow from ProServ.

I called them both, but got hold of John from ProServ first. By this time it was about 7:00 PM Friday evening. John asked if he could go in the morning. Since it wasn't going to get TOO cold (maybe 25) that night, I said ok. He promised to be there at 6:00 AM.

Then Jake from Becker Boiler called me back. I said I had someone from ProServ on the tap for the morning. He said that's fine, but call him if I needed to. He seemed to imply that the ProServ folks work on residential only boilers, and he might not be able to fix it.

It was a long and sleepless night. And NOT because it was Valentine's Day!

At 6:15 the next morning, I got a call from John. He said he cannot fix it, he was unfamiliar with the burner and the control system. So I called Jake back. He would be there at 8:00 AM.

Around 10:00 AM I got the text that I had been hoping for. 

Jake called me an explained what had happened.

The pressure transducer (a control unit that measure the pressure in the boiler and then turns the flames on or off) had been improperly installed IN the boiler itself, just above the waterline.

Pressure transducer

This cause the transducer to get plugged with scale, and fail.

Luckily for us, Brother Matthew was able to visit the house to make sure everything was running. I am very grateful for his help.

I am now getting way outside my level of knowledge so I will turn this over to Jake, who sent this explanation:

Removed the pressure transducer from the boiler, (it was installed direct in the boiler just above the waterline, directly in the steam area). 

Observed scale in the orifice, plugging t transducer. Attempted to clear it out and was able to get it to clear, however it was not functioning. Reinstalled it but disconnected the wiring. Tested all safety limits to find out why the boil was stuck in the "OFF" position. 

All safety controls were operational and calling for boiler to fire. Checked in the Siemens AZL and noticed it was not communicating with the RWF and flashing in the "off" condition.  through the AZL programming and cleared the communication error. Succeeded in getting the boiler to fi and set the operational pressuretrol to act as the main pressure control for the boiler. Ordered the new transducer and installed it after it was received.

Reinstalled it using a pigtail to protect it from direct steam and debris from the surface of the boiler water. 

Reset pressuretrol back to original pressure and fired boiler. Observed operation and boiler modulation.

Everything was functioning properly

The transducer was installed on Tuesday.

It looks like this:

So the boiler is OK, as far as I know.

Of course, this leaves some very big questions we need to have answered:

1. Why did they install this boiler?
2. Did they know that the installer would not be able to maintain it?
3. Did they have a backup plan for the maintenance and repair of this boiler?
4. Was the price justified?

Anyway, this is not the end of the story.