Sorry guys. My terminology isn't always spot on.

By domestic supply...I meant the domestic feed to the boiler.

I dug out an older digital camera I have and put the battery on the charger last night. If the battery still works...how about I take some better pics of the set up for everyone and post....That should make things a bit easier.

Draining a bit of water sounds easy. I'm comfortable with that...and shutting off the water supply to the boiler. I'll take pics, post, then let you guys chime in before I do anything.

 

Ok guys...pics!

Boiler Pressure pictures by glennmj99 - Photobucket

Two new uploads with a better camera...

Tank and piping: A pic of what's going on above the boiler. If you look at that small pipe just in front of the expansion tank, you'll see it "tee" off to the right. That leads to the indirect fired tank. That shut off is for the tank. It's hard to see, but follow that pipe down...and just before it elbows to the left, there's the second shut off. Just after that is the backflow preventer and beyond that is the feeder(out of the frame in this pic). The two Taco zone valves have arrows pointing down.

Feeder, relief, shutoff pic:
This is what was out of frame before. The smaller pipe in back leads to the feeder; you can see it hiding. There's another shut off valve just after the feeder. I'm not sure why one is before...and one after. Redundancy in case one fails? I beleive that larger shut off is for the return from the baseboards?

Here's what I did tonight. In that last pic, see the spigot? I drained some water out of there...brought the pressure down to around 20. Now, should I shut off one of the two feeders to the boiler...so the unit is no longer taking in domestic water?

 

Quick bump! Let me know what you guys think regarding which feeder to shut off.

 

I've got to read back to refresh my memory what we were talking about... but I think the valve you are looking for is whichever one will prevent any fill water from going into the boiler...

I'll re-read the thread this evening...

 

I have read all the posts and it probably does not matter what valve you shut off. I would close the lower one in front of the fill valve. I would go back to Troopers post # 36 below and cool the boiler to 100F, drain some water to get the pressure to 12 psi or so then close the valve. Turn the boiler on and run it a few weeks and check the pressure. If it does not rise then the assesments would be accurate that the boiler is taking sips of water because of the pressure drop from the way your boiler is pipped.

Let us know.

Mike NJ

 

Thanks guys! Given the weather, I'm not sure if I can let it cool. If I drain, get the pressure to 12(ish) psi and shut off the fill, will that still give us a good idea of what's happening?

 

Glenn, if the boiler is HOT, say 160 or so, try draining to say 18 PSI ... then close the valve. Make a note of the temp and pressure... and see if it stabilizes...

 

All set! Boiler was 165ish...drained to around 18/19psi and shut off the feeder. I'll take a look later and see what it's doing. Thanks so much guys.