Safe to run gas fired boiler with water inlet closed for 2-3 days?


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Old 10-20-18, 04:11 PM
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Safe to run gas fired boiler with water inlet closed for 2-3 days?

This is a natural gas fired water boiler used for heat only.
The water inlet for this boiler was fed by the hot side of my separate tank water heater. However the water heater let go and leaked so I shut off the feed to the water heater. Therefore no water pressure for the heat system.

I am in CT and it's late October so no frigid temperatures but it will get cool, in 40-50 F temps so heat may come on but no risk of freezing if I turn it off.
Heat is off now, and is sitting at about 14 psi.
water heater failed on late Sat. so can't get anyone until Monday so 2 days at the earliest. Is there any reason to shut off the heat for that time? I know systems can lose water over time but seems safe for a few days. Thoughts?
 
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Old 10-20-18, 04:17 PM
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I wonder why the boiler make-up water is supplied from your water heater rather than directly from city water? Does your boiler have a low-water cutoff that has been recently tested? But, I think you may have already calculated the risks - but anyway, the decision is yours. If you want me to advise you, with lawyers potentially at bay, then it's shut down the boiler immediately.
 
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Old 10-20-18, 05:06 PM
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Boiler was installed in 2013, so not a very old system. Low water shutoff was installed at that time. I haven't tested it myself. I was thinking that between the low risk of running low on water (no leaks) plus having the newer shutoff valve present, it seemed excessively cautions to shut it down. Will be going without hot water for the weekend, it seems unnecessary to go without heat also.

I don't know why the feed is from the hot side of the water tank but the old system was installed that way, and it wasn't changed with the new system. The previous system was a very old and maintained water temperature constantly whether on or not, new system does not do that. So perhaps they were preventing shock of cold water entering hot boiler at that time?
 
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Old 10-20-18, 06:11 PM
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m,
My opinion on this is, it is completely safe to run your boiler with the main valve to the boiler shut off.

Some people are paranoid about leaks and are worried that if they get a leak in the system and they don't catch it immediately their basement could flood if the water continues to feed so they run the system with it off which is perfectly safe as long as you check your pressure periodically.

You have added insurance with your LWCO installed to protect your boiler.

Although personally I would never recommend it you can run your system safely with the feed turned off. It's unnecessary to shut your boiler down just because of that.

Just my opinion, hope this helps.
 
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Old 10-23-18, 11:35 AM
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Thanks for the replies.
I just wanted to close this out, the new HW heater was put in today, and I left the heat system on since it failed on Saturday so more than 3 days ago, and all was fine. when i opened up the boiler's valve, not a sound, so no make-up water rushing in. No problems.
 
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Old 10-23-18, 01:49 PM
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M,
Thank you for the update.
 
 

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