PLEASE NOTE: I AM NOT A BOILER TECHNICIAN ... steam can KILL you and/or blow up your house! Please take this for entertainment purposes only, not as an instruction manual. The manual for a similar boiler to the one we are working on can be found here :
http://www.weil-mclain.com/en/assets/pdf/sgo-boiler-manual_1014.pdf
This is part 2 of the steam boiler troubleshooting and repair.
Special thanks to New Britain Plumbing Supply for the advice and the gauges and the pressure relief valve!
http://newbritainplumbingsupply.com/
The copper pipe used for this is soft copper 3/8" from lowes. The fittings were figured out on the fly, so its pointless for anyone to attempt a direct copy of this design .....but at least we know its possible to make a functional pigtail on a Sunday!
The problem was that the pressure cut in was seeing only 1lb of steam whilst the relief valve at the back of the boiler was opening at 15lbs. One of those devices was lying. Long story short, the pigtail was clogged so much so that the cut in was not reading proper pressure, and thank GOD for the relief valve working properly. Frankly, multiple gauges should be a must on these things.... very helpful.
Pigtails really should be cleaned out once a year.... lesson learned. Now there is a mechanical union on the pigtail making maintenance easy!
