What should my pressure be?

You're right. It was so far back in the post that I forgot about it. If the piping is common between the two units, both units should be close in pressure readings. You might have a faulty gauge; not uncommon. Pipe dope can block the tiny ports that measure pressure, if too much is applied, or at the wrong place.

Stokerman and Carnage....

The two units are hooked directly together. They are about 25 feet away from each other.... the stoker is in the shed and the oil boiler in the basement.... but even so they share the same piping. I was kindof wondering myself. It seemed to me that the pressure should be equal in both of them. The oil boiler guage has a red arrow to show where the pressure should be and it is always right on that arrow so i believe it would be correct.

My fire went out yesterday afternoon and I had to restart but the coal boiler temp was still at 140 degrees but the pressure dropped to 10 pounds. But then after the system was up and running again I was back up at 20 pounds again and thats where it has stayed.

Thanks for the help
Tyler

CoalJockey wrote:By feed line PRV do you mean the line that feeds the boilers constantly with water? Or Auto boiler feed I think is what the plumber called it. Also by bleed a little water from the drain do you mean the drain on the coal boiler? If I do that wont the auto feed just fill it up again?

I mean Pressure Reducing Valve, the one that bleeds overpressure from the top of the boiler would be a Pressure Relief Valve. It will be on the cold water feed to the boiler, typically a WATTS valve with a little lever on it. There should be a drain valve on both boilers, drain a little out of the one that is overpressure.
If the valve is set right and you bring the pressure down to say 5#, it should go back up to 12-15#. If it goes higher again try to adjust the valve to a lower setting and repeat the drain procedure. If the pressure continues to rise to 20# you may need a new valve. They don't live a real long time on well water, I change mine every 6-7 years it seems.

CoalJockey wrote:Stokerman and Carnage....

The two units are hooked directly together. They are about 25 feet away from each other.... the stoker is in the shed and the oil boiler in the basement.... but even so they share the same piping. I was kindof wondering myself. It seemed to me that the pressure should be equal in both of them. The oil boiler guage has a red arrow to show where the pressure should be and it is always right on that arrow so i believe it would be correct.

My fire went out yesterday afternoon and I had to restart but the coal boiler temp was still at 140 degrees but the pressure dropped to 10 pounds. But then after the system was up and running again I was back up at 20 pounds again and thats where it has stayed.

Thanks for the help
Tyler

I would buy a new guage (one that will fit the oil or boiler) change one out. That would tell you if one was bad. If they both show to be good then you need and addtional or a bigger expansion tank. But I don't believe 20 psi is to terrible high. I think coal berner told be I needed a 14 gallon capacity expansion tank, Stoker Man could comment on this. I'm sure he knows how much water is in the efm.

41 gallons in the 520.

My boilers are connected together and both are cold right now. The one in the basement reads 11# and the one on the first floor reads 10#, and they are 30 feet apart.

my boilers also read almost identical if not identical on pressure.

the high boy I believe has on the area of 60 gallons of water and my oil burner has much less than that! hehe. but the pressures are still the same...

until I valve off the oil burner when I start heating.... saturday... hopefully!

Mark your high boy holds 73 gals of water 33gal more then a standard 520

cArNaGe wrote:

CoalJockey wrote:Stokerman and Carnage....

The two units are hooked directly together. They are about 25 feet away from each other.... the stoker is in the shed and the oil boiler in the basement.... but even so they share the same piping. I was kindof wondering myself. It seemed to me that the pressure should be equal in both of them. The oil boiler guage has a red arrow to show where the pressure should be and it is always right on that arrow so i believe it would be correct.

My fire went out yesterday afternoon and I had to restart but the coal boiler temp was still at 140 degrees but the pressure dropped to 10 pounds. But then after the system was up and running again I was back up at 20 pounds again and thats where it has stayed.

Thanks for the help
Tyler

I would buy a new guage (one that will fit the oil or boiler) change one out. That would tell you if one was bad. If they both show to be good then you need and addtional or a bigger expansion tank. But I don't believe 20 psi is to terrible high. I think coal berner told be I needed a 14 gallon capacity expansion tank, Stoker Man could comment on this. I'm sure he knows how much water is in the efm.

A Extrol 60 is fine for a 520 7.6 gal 250k btu's or you can put a 90 on it 14gal but you are not going to see 300k btu's
unless you are at 10teeth at 25lbs of coal a hr & your air setting is on 9.5 and the 520 hold 40gal of water unless the
gauges are off at the shop the 520 highboys hold 73 gals the 700 hold 94gals the 900 hold 102 gals the 1300 hold 115 gals
the 350 round boilers hold 28 gals the Sq 350 hold 30 gal

http://www.amtrol.com/pdf/extrolbrochure.pdf

My 520 is running between 10 and 15 PSI with water temps between 140f to 160f you might have a air lock in the system
somewhere or like others said a bad gauge are you using radiators or baseboard might need to bleed them if you have them

I don't think you have this problem, but notice the small slit of space between the brass and the copper probe. It's about 1/32" at the most and that's where pressure is measured. If you get excessive pipe dope in that space, it won't measure pressure.

Stokerman and JC

Thanks for the help. I dont think there is any pipe dope down that far onto the probe.... I was there when he put it in and it doesnt seem in my memory that could pose a threat.

Im gonna bleed the baseboards again this evening and see what happens. May try to work with that pressure reducing valve on the auto feed and see what that gets me. Cant hardly screw anything up..... then again....

Ill see what happens
Thanks for the help guys
Tyler