Emf 520 1981 Duel Fuel Sprung a Leak

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 10:37 am

emf 520 1981 duel fuel sprung a leak on the bottom of the 1st coil on the left hand side. What could be the issue. is it repairable or is my boiler toast? it a very slow leak, someone mentioned stop leak, but I don't want to shut down in the middle of winter. Responses is appreciated, thankyou.

whistlenut · Post by **whistlenut** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 11:05 am

Any idea where the boiler came from in a previous life? Water chemistry might have been a factor. I'm sure it can be repaired if nothing else is bad.

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 11:36 am

i bought refurbished boiler from bob harvey in skulkill haven 10 years ago and no, there is no other issues with my boiler, does anyone know of someone who specializes in boiler welds?

whistlenut · Post by **whistlenut** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 11:47 am

I'm not in your area, but plenty of welders are available where you live. Someone will probably get back to you tonight...or when they get sick of sweating to death in this heat.

Post by **dcrane** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 7:04 pm

jayseidel wrote:i bought refurbished boiler from bob harvey in skulkill haven 10 years ago and no, there is no other issues with my boiler, does anyone know of someone who specializes in boiler welds?

whats the age of the boiler though?

Scottscoaled · Post by **Scottscoaled** » Tue. Jul. 16, 2013 9:51 pm

dcrane wrote:
jayseidel wrote:i bought refurbished boiler from bob harvey in skulkill haven 10 years ago and no, there is no other issues with my boiler, does anyone know of someone who specializes in boiler welds?
whats the age of the boiler though?

Post by **Rob R.** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 5:12 am

dcrane wrote:
jayseidel wrote:i bought refurbished boiler from bob harvey in skulkill haven 10 years ago and no, there is no other issues with my boiler, does anyone know of someone who specializes in boiler welds?
whats the age of the boiler though?

2013-1981...32 years?

jayseidel wrote:emf 520 1981 duel fuel sprung a leak on the bottom of the 1st coil on the left hand side. What could be the issue. is it repairable or is my boiler toast? it a very slow leak, someone mentioned stop leak, but I don't want to shut down in the middle of winter. Responses is appreciated, thankyou.

Is the area that is leaking visibly corroded? It is possible that one of the welds started to weep after a few decades of use, if the steel is still in good shape it should be repairable. If the boiler was allowed to sit unused through the summer year after year and that area is rotted out, it will be much harder to fix. Do you have a picture of the area that is leaking?

Post by **dcrane** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 5:47 am

Rob R. wrote:
dcrane wrote: whats the age of the boiler though?
2013-1981...32 years?

jayseidel wrote:emf 520 1981 duel fuel sprung a leak on the bottom of the 1st coil on the left hand side. What could be the issue. is it repairable or is my boiler toast? it a very slow leak, someone mentioned stop leak, but I don't want to shut down in the middle of winter. Responses is appreciated, thankyou.
Is the area that is leaking visibly corroded? It is possible that one of the welds started to weep after a few decades of use, if the steel is still in good shape it should be repairable. If the boiler was allowed to sit unused through the summer year after year and that area is rotted out, it will be much harder to fix. Do you have a picture of the area that is leaking?

Im with Rob on this one... I don't know the gauge or effects of 32 years on an EFM but Rob says it precisely right... get in their and start poking around and rubbing or lightly scraping those internal area's of steel to see if this is a joint/weld failure or rather just the first sign of a more catastrophic erosion failure (tap, tap, tap lightly all around). welding will just blow through a thinning/weakening of a more catastrophic failure and you would be setting yourself up for more failure problematic issue in the middle of winter if your getting a lot of scaling (sloughing off of old iron and steel). Just make sure theirs still plenty of "meat on the bone" so to speak

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 8:57 am

ok, ill post a picture shortly, I shut down boiler every summer, I guess its not the best thing for aging boiler

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 10:17 am

<a href="http://s1136.photobucket.com/user/favorites96/med ... 9.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n487/favorite ... 27f7f9.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 035_zps5327f7f9.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1136.photobucket.com/user/favorites96/med ... a.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n487/favorite ... d323ea.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 034_zps92d323ea.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s1136.photobucket.com/user/favorites96/med ... 2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n487/favorite ... 6548e2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 033_zps4d6548e2.jpg"/></a>

a steady stream errupted after I did a little scraping

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 10:20 am

a steady stream errupted after I did a little scraping

whistlenut · Post by **whistlenut** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 10:21 am

You may now understand why not many of us shut down except to rebuild, clean or otherwise refresh our boilers. Certainly nothing could be worse than letting a boiler sit that had fresh water in it, and not having the system purged of oxygen. Like anything that sits idle for an extended period, things decay. I did note a couple of smilee's from scott, and he too, knows that sometimes what you see is not necessarily representative of what you can't see. Is 32 year a long life for a steel boiler? No, however not knowing the conditions where it came from, can affect longevity and service life.

I notice that you are trying to post some pictures as I send this......and I did read your comment on light scraping caused additional leaks.........not sounding too good.....but you are not out of luck yet.

Nice sprinkler you have there.......find that welder.....who knows.

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 10:44 am

Shutting down for the summer isn't so bad if the boiler's enviorment is not too humid. A good cleaning at spring shut down is very important as well.
Few boilers have a low humidity environment...so the risk is large for corriosion.

What leads to internal ccrrosion is prolonged oxygen not being removed from the water, and running at too low of temperature for extended periods.
Another way to get added oxygen into boiler water is by having a leak which causes new make-up water to be added and that new oxygen doesn't get removed due to boiler being shut down for the summer.

What causes corrosion from the outside to inside is simply a dirty uncleaned fire box in a humid environment left to eat away undeteced till it's finally discovered.

Leaks need immediate attention...especially when not run year round....it's a double edged sword

Post by **stoker-man** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 3:18 pm

I developed a long crack at the square frame of the door before last Winter. I bought some boiler sealer at home depot and it sealed it right up and doesn't leak yet. It would have been an impossible weld because it's also cracked on the inside at a butt joint. Your leak doesn't look like it's too easy to fix and you could have a larger area of corrosion to fix.

jayseidel · Post by **jayseidel** » Wed. Jul. 17, 2013 4:32 pm

how long will it take for the boiler to drain down, its still going 6 hours later since I opened up that hole