EFM 520 Low Water Cutoff replacement?

What is involved in removing this low water cutoff and replacing it with a new one? Is this something I can do myself? I bought a rebuilt one on ebay to replace this with.

Welcome to the forum.

It doesn't look complicated. As long as you can do basic threaded plumbing connections and basic wiring, it should be no problem.

I don't know much about steam systems but the unit says it's a "Boiler Water Level Control". Not a low water cuttoff.

-Don

That's a device which automatically keeps a steam boiler at the proper water level. If you have to manually add water to maintain the level then the control is not working. If it's maintaining water level the control is functioning properly.

I believe it is also a manual blow down valve used to purge sediment from a steam system.

Yeah it hasn't been working, have to hit it to make the stove run.

Do you open the ball valve to purge sediment?

Yes I do open it.

Obviously the LWCO performs an essential safety function, but I'm not a big fan of auto-fill in steam systems. They provide an element of convenience, but usually no info regarding the frequency or quantity of water addition. And the ones I've seen aren't clever enough to know when to stop. For example, I know someone who woke up in the night to the sound of rain...indoors. A stuck autofill was blowing boiler water out of all of the steam vents in a 3-family house. Even without that type of fiasco, if you aren't aware of how fast your system is losing water, you may be missing the opportunity to recognize and take corrective action on minor boiler or piping leaks before you need a boat to navigate in your basement. Even though it's a little inconvenient, I prefer to check the water level and fill manually.

Mike

Good point Mike. Considering the manual nature of a coal boiler (changing ash tub, etc), adding water manually would be a small inconvience.

For a system (or a homeowner) that is less hands on, the autofeed probably has more value. The higher-end units have a meter that tracks the quantity of makeup water.

Thanks for the replies, one more question related to this. How do you disconnect the part shown in this picture? It looks like there's threading on both sides and then its smooth in the middle.

leave the float and piping up to the tee and spin the float with pipe going into the boiler from what i can tell . Youll have to remove all the trim and sight glass unless you put unions in the nipples going into the boiler.