Pressuretrol problem

Last night, one of my wife's friends called to let me know that her boiler wouldn't start. I went over and did some checking of the control wiring and determined that the contacts on the Pressuretrol are open. This was the first time this year she tried to start the system. From what I understand, this control needs to be cleaned periodically. I am admittedly not too familiar with hot water/steam systems. While I suggested that she have a contractor out to do a complete PM, I'd like to at least take a shot at cleaning the Pressuretrol prior to that to get it going, is for no other reason than I've heard that it's good to run the system a bit prior to a PM (as opposed to having the thorough cleaning done on a system that has sat all summer without running). Can someone provide some giudance in that regard? (The control is directly mounted to a horizontal run of copper pipe. Because the ssytem has a sight glass, I believe it is steam.)

 

Just unscrew it & flush the connection with water. Often crud (highly technical term for various contaminants ) dries in the nipple connection. It may take a while but it usually will flush out.

 

Do you mean to remove the Pressuretrol and flush the fitting that is part of the Pressuretrol, or the lines that it screws into? Or both? Will the crud be readily apparent? Sorry for the simplistic questions, but again I'm more familiar with forced air furnaces. And given the function of the Pressuretrol, I do not want to screw anything up or risk endangering the homeowner in any way.

 

The material preventing operation will be apperent. It could be in the fitting or in the base of the pressuretrol. If it is in the control & won't flush out easily, you would be better off to replace the control rather than take a chance on damaging it.

 

As it turned out, the control was fine. The problem was that the pigtail (or siphon) (the curved trap-like tube used to cushion the gauge) was completely clogged. The fact that the pressure gauge showed 3 psi on a system that hadn't run in months clued me in. Thanks for your help.

 

Ah yes. The pressure gauge tip-off. It will tell on a lot of simple problems. What you encountered is fairly common problem particularly if the siphon is steel as most are. Good Job