This video is a gem. Thank you for de-mystifying this device. The installer flat out refused to give me any information concerning its programming or operation but as you've shown its really quite simple to get the auto-feeder tuned up. I'm going to note the desired water level on the sight glass then drain the boiler until the LW sensor kicks in......the amount of water in gallons that drains into my bucket at that point will be where I set the water volume dip switch. Thank you again.
Good morning Gordon, just wanted to send you a big shout-out and a big thank you for telling me which auto water feeder to purchase. I was able to finally get a Hydrolevel VXT for my steam boiler. Took a couple hours to redo all plumbing and get it hooked up. But I am so very pleased with it and I just wanted to thank you again for explaining all about it and showing the videos explaining it. I would advise everybody that has a steam boiler to purchase one of these because they do work good. Thank you again Gordon keep up the good work. Steve in Wyoming
Thank you Mr Gordon for all your advice on the vxt and other nice things you showed me from your other videos. My steam boiler runs perfect now thanks to you !!
@@gordonschweizer5154 I was able to time and measure exact amount of water per lwco call to reach level be4 Loc. Solved the boiler flooding issue. Again, thanks. My plumber never went over it.😠
Thank you for another insightful video, Gordon. Please keep them coming. What I found useful is you explaining that both the period after the numbers means there is a call to feed and that blinking numbers means the feeder has already “rolled over” the counter. (Not sure if I phrased that second part correctly). Happy New Year
@ amradco: You are welcome! Been meaning to get this video out for awhile. Would you please share what you found most useful in this video? I'm planning to make another one just on the solenoid valve itself at some point which I hope will also be somewhat useful.
Just found your channel. Swapped from oil to natural gas on Burnham steam boiler. Trying to learn how to do basic maintenance. Retired electrical lineman
Thanks for information, pretty helpful to me, it leading to the reset low water reset tab and 30 segond tab buttons, your info help me solved the problem, thanks again
You're most welcome! Since the time I made this video, I'm now recommending a 2 min delay setting rather than 30 sec. 30 seconds is really for this video, otherwise it'd be too long and even more boring! And also the 2 min delay recommendation is in the official instructions.
Good day your tutorial was very informative My question is that I for the summer shut down the gas and power supply to the heating system upon powering up and turning on the gas valve the VXT-24 is flashing on /off ,the low water cut off also blinks then stop for around 30 seconds and repeats with no water feeding. Manual feeding works and the glass tube shows the correct amount of water for boiler to turn on . Please if you can help advise on how to troubleshoot this problem J C
Thanks! You may be having an issue with a malfuctioning low water cut off. Is your LWCO a PSE-802-24 by chance? Try draining the boiler, pulling the probe, and cleaning it. If that doesn't work, you may have to replace your LWCO & probe.
You're welcome. I may, however, be not giving you complete advice. It seems as if something is interrupting the power to your LWCO, maybe. You say your VXT is turning off and on & your LWCO is also cycling through its self-check?
Thank you for your most informative video. I've watched of few of your this morning and I should like you to know, you're is the first channel to which I've subscribed :). I think it's wonderful you continue to respond to comments more than two years after posting the vid. I've heard various answers to this question and would consider your credible. What is a normal about of fill water to us in a cold month? I have two systems, both replaced appx. 7 years ag. They're one pipe systems. The first provides heat to an appx 1340 square foot first floor apartment and the other provides heat to an appx. 2300 square foot second and third floor unit. Both were installed by a plumber I believe to be experienced in steam heat (as difficult as that is to find) and were inspected by the City, so I'm assuming the plumbing was done correctly. All the steam vents, including the main vents are working properly. There may be one minor leak from between two sections of a radiator (sucky situation, from what I understand), but I don't think that would account for all the water loss on the upper unit system. I'm unaware of any leaks on the first floor system. Do you have any thoughts on how to track down a water leak? Thanks again for a wonderful video and your insightful responses to comments.
You're welcome! Any leaks that are visible on a steam system should be dealt with ruthlessly. Steam is sneaky that way. For every drop you see, there are three or more you don't. So that "minor" leak really isn't. Packing nuts on valves must be snug on the stem or steam will wisp thru them unseen. Union nuts might only leak when the pressure gets above 1 psi on extra cold days.
Best on the market, I always install a pressure regulator on them if supply water pressure is over 60psi. I toured the plant 20 yrs ago. They also make a commercial version with higher gallon feed rates. FYI at that time they also made rolls of pinstripe for cars.
Indeed! Thank you for comments as always. Did you happen to see my videos of my visit to Hydrolevel's factory last year? They were very gracious to my intrusion! No doubt you know they are now located in North Haven's old Marlin Firearms factory.
@@scottk0623 They were in New Haven on Canal St, IIRC. They were then, and still are, justifiably proud of their products and enjoy showing them to folks wherever they are located.
Just came across this. I have a 120 model, even though it's a Natural Gas steam boiler. Anyway, we are experiencing steam radiators spitting water. I looked at the boiler and the water tube was over the top. I emptied it and got it down to low-water cutoff. Allowed to refill, but it seems to be calling for water when it's not needed. I can hear it kick in even during the summer. Is indicative of a bad feeder or the low-water cutoff sensor? BTW, my feeder is set to LWC and 3 minutes.
I would say that the low water cut off is sending false signals to the feeder. Try draining the boiler below the probe and removing it and cleaning it. Have a replacement probe handy just in case. If the LWCO is still sending bad signals to the feeder - that is to say you can see water in the glass at or above the proper level & there is a lit period after the numbers on the VXT -then it may be time to replace the LWCO. Please be aware I can't see the whole picture & there may be other unknown issues!
Is it possible to set the cut in when let’s say when the boiler is 3/4 filled and topped off to full.and how would that be achieved. Great video by the way.
I think the best way would be to fire the boiler, and slowly drain the boiler to trigger the LWCO. Watch as the VXT times out the delay and watch it feed to the desired level. Then I would alter the settings if necessary, test again, and adjust as needed. I would start at 2min delay/ one gal. per feed. and go from there. On some boilers, I've had to resort to 2min (or above) delay and shut off at the "LWCO" setting which does not allow the lockout feature to engage IIRC.
@@cliftonliu6054 If the number is a single digit, excellent. Low double digits, great. High double digit, may be a leak somewhere? Triple digits, generally signals a problem or problems requiring immediate attention. Also depends on how long the VXT has been in service and how long ago the VXT was reset.
Yes, please check my VXT playlist for my videos on how I reverse the valve. The ideas shown are just my suggestions *only* on how I do it and not authorized by Hydrolevel.
Hello my friend, for the first time I am watching your videos and I find them very interesting. What I would like more if you were to make the videos in Spanish because we know a lot of people who do not understand English, my question is the following, after a week I installed a new boiler and installed it also hydrolyze it cdt 24 vl what happens is that suddenly the boil turns off and i don't understand and in the feeding system it indicates LOC
"LOC" means the low water cut off safety control (LWCO) asked the VXT feeder continuously for water for two cycles in a row without satisfying the LWCO. Either there is little or no water actually going though the feeder into the boiler, or there IS enough water in the boiler, BUT the LWCO is not sensing it thus giving false signals to the VXT, or you have one heck of a leak somewhere in your system.
Hello Gordon. First I want to compliment you on your videos. They are extremely helpful and well-presented. So I recently became responsible for an oil-fired steam heating system. It is quite old but also seems to be quite reliable. Neither the oil burner nor the boiler have been serviced in a few years (like possibly 8 😬) so I’m crossing my fingers and putting together a plan for spring. Since I have no experience with steam systems I am in the process of figuring out how these systems are put together. I’m wondering if you’ve ever seen an auto-feed system that consisted of a proximity switch pointed into the gauge glass hooked to a relay timer hooked to a Skinner solenoid on the feed water line. Is this normal or something my wife’s late husband, who was an accomplished electrical engineer, made up? Also, there is no manual valve on the feed line. I can get it to add water by sliding the proximity switch up the glass though. Is it ok to do that or should I have a manual bypass loop plumbed in?
Thank you for your kind words of praise. Yes, I'd get your oil burner & boiler looked at as soon a you can by a competent oil/boiler tech. They are hard to find. As to your unusual water feed system, we'd all like to see pictures. Please post them on HeatingHelp.com!
@@gordonschweizer5154 I didn’t think this setup was typical. Can you explain where this VXT system gets it’s signal to turn on from? Is it from the LWCO?
How high does it go? Does the number displayed on the screen matter? Mine displayed 13 for several days and the pipes were banging away. Then it went up to 21 and it flooded the boiler before reaching the radiators, luckily I shut it off before it could. Now it’s off or disconnected and it’s displaying 125! F’d up completely, and it’s brand new..just installed boiler... I was told it shouldn’t be opened.. not that I would.. I stumbled on this yesterday when my brother in law told me it sounds like the feeder isn’t sensing and over feeding. Ok the second part kind of answered my question a bit?.
It may be that the low water cut off is sending spurious signals to the VXT. The LWCO "thinks" it's low on water when in fact it's not. Has your new boiler been cleaned per manufacturer's instructions? Dirty water is one possible cause of a poor performing LWCO.
Gordon Schweizer thx for answering... I don’t know if they cleaned it.. I’ll ask. I think that was brought up also. Is it the same as skimming? I don’t know about the LWCO either.
@@klp7620 There could be a number of issues here: The installers may not have done the "near boiler piping" correctly, causing the water in the boiler to be thrown up into the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder. The water in the system may still be contaminated, either thru no or not enough cleaning and skimming. That will cause "wet steam", sending water up into the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder. The returns could be clogged and not allowing the water to return to the boiler quickly, causing the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder. The pressure controller may be allowing excessive pressure to build up in the system (or your boiler is over-sized or over-fired or both), holding water up in the pipes and returns, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder. You could have some of your radiator valves partly closed, holding water in the radiators, which causes water to be held up in the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop... you get the idea.
Gordon, If the low water shut off malfunctions and sends signals to the HydroLevel I am concerned that it could flood the system, I read about an interrupter switch that senses excessive pressure in the system and kills the feed wire, do you recommend one and where is it to be installed?
We haven't done anything like what you suggest, so it would be taking on airs if we gave any recommendations as to that. It certainly merits discussion, however. Please don't take this as an end to the matter. Maybe we could come up with a plan. I take it you have had the unfortunate experience of a flooded steam boiler?
Hello and thank you for your video. My question is the following, I have the vx24. And the counter keeps going up and up as if it was feeding the boiler. However I dont think it actually is feeding. Since the start of this season the counter was reading 163 times. I've check for leaks everywhere around the house and around boiler and there are none. The boiler is a crown boiler installed in 2015. Could there be an issue with the counter it self??
Hi! I think you are largely correct. It may be that for some reason the actual amount of water passing thru the vxt's valve is very low but not zero. Have you had to add any water manually to get your boiler to fire?
@@gordonschweizer5154Sir thank you very much for your reply, for your knowledge and assistance with this. To answer your question, no I haven't had to add any water to start it. Not even normal operation during the winter season. I have done some maintenance by draining some of the old water and cleaning some of the gunk but nothing more. According to the glass level the water inside boiler is alway at a proper level. Glass is always showing full or nearly full. And like I said before, there are no leaks anywhere. Would you be kind and also tell me if the red valves at each end of the glass level be set fully open?? And should the manual water feeder valve thats near the VXT be set to a close or open position?
@@OSCARANDRES039 It is possible that your sight glass might be clogged with mud in the trappings and might not be telling your true water level in your boiler. The sight glass valves should be always open unless servicing it. The manual fill valve/VXT by-pass should always be shut unless adding water manually.
The VXT feeder is designed to add a timed measured amount of water to your steam boiler, after a preset delay, upon a call from the boiler's low water cut off. It very roughly corresponds to one gallon per unit count. Very roughly! Your mileage may vary! So, the counter number displayed *may* indicate a small leak somewhere. The VXT cannot tell you where the putative leak is, only that you may have one.
I really like your video, I wish I would have seen it before buying my water feeder. I didn’t know they had different voltages and I ended up buying a 124v water feeder when my low water cut-off is 24v. Is there a way to wire up my low water cut-off of 24v and my water feeder of 124v? Thank you in advance and have a terrific day
What model boiler do you have? I'm going to assume its atmospheric gas fired? What make and model LWCO is on it? It may be possible to wire it just so with a clever use of a RIB relay ("relay in a box"). I assume you can't return the feeder and exchange it for the one with the "correct" voltage?
@@ricardoguzmanoritz14 : Just to test, I hooked up 24V to the VXT-120 shown above and nothing bad happened, but it didn't "light up" (as expected). I then re-tested the same unit with 120 volts and it worked perfectly, so no worries on that score. If, however, a VXT-24 were exposed to 120v, I'm reasonably certain it would not end well for the 24 volt unit. You might not need to remove/un-solder the complete valve assembly to replace the units, just make sure to remove the green coil (120v) and put the blue one (24v) in its place, and it will be good to go. I hope that helps!
Sir , today I check the boiler water level and I notice the water inside the glass fluctuating. Is this normal?? If not how can I correct this condition?? Thank you
While the boiler is making steam, some fluctuation is normal. Any more than plus or minus one inch from the resting water line is mostly likely too much.
@@gordonschweizer5154 hello sir, I'm back with another question. My mothers apartment has 6 radiators but only 2 that are actually working. The other 4 have been turn off at the valve because they make her apartment to hot and also make alot of noise. Banging all day and night. Would it be bad for the boiler or the pipes themselves just having the 2 radiators working ?? Note.. I did tilt the banging radiators several inches but it did not make any difference in the. Noise. So I turn those 4 off. The crown boiler is has an 85,000 BTu output and a 103,000 BTU input. Currently working nicely. I drain all the water this weekend and fill it back up. unclog the sight glass as well as the pressure gauge and lower the pressuretrol settings to 1.5 PSI on the main and .5 on the differential
@@gordonschweizer5154 also no more issues with the vxt. When I drain the water the WCO kick in and hit the boiler off. Several minutes later the VXT kick in and a call for water was started by it. And the water level on the sight glass went up. I also added a 4" brass attention tube to the pigtail so that it sticks out further away from the boiler and makes it easier for servicing
@@gordonschweizer5154 I've been getting alot of banging in the pipe system of my steam boiler. I believe us due to the pitch angle of the manifold pipe coming out of the boiler. Could I replace a 6" portion of that pipe to a shorter 4" section to make the pipe pitch more downward to the boiler thus allowing the condense water to return to the boiler faster and more freely. What do you think?
What is the feed amount switch set to? 1 gal? or LWCO? or ? I've also found that rarely, the flow restrictor build into the valve body gets dislodged and it will feed too much on a cycle.
@@jakehits Remember, I can't see your whole boiler situation, so I'm going by some creative guesswork. So, here goes: Yes, try 1 gallon per feed cycle. Then you might try to set the feed delay to 30 seconds, than slowly drain the boiler until the low water cut off is triggered (and a period appears after the three numbers on the VXT). See what happens to the water level. Is it still too high? Or too low? If it too low, set feed cycle to 2 gal and try again. If too high, well, that might be a totally different issue and we'll get to that if needed. An eight minute delay is a bit long it seems to me. Let me ask you this: When the boiler runs for a while, what happens to the water level? If it drops in the sightglass at the end of a long cycle, how long does the water take to return to where it started, more or less? If it taking longer than 2 min, you've got a problem somewhere in the system. It most cases, 30 seconds should be long enough.
Gordon Schweizer Great idea and thanks so much for the insight. I will try that next time. This boiler is in the basement and heats the third floor of a three family house so the steam has to travel quite a distance. The water returns to about where it started in the sight glass but I don’t know how long it takes since I haven’t ever sat and watched it from when the thermostat was cut off after a long heat session. I will try that also.
@@jakehits I'm glad I can help. Third floor radiators only? That's certainly unusual! I'm going to assume some more and say this is one-pipe steam? If so, if you can, please make sure the in-let valves on those radiators are all fully open. Partly open valves can delay water return back to the boiler.
@@gordonschweizer5154 i called customer service and they said go with 8 i have one pipe steam oil steam sys.. he was clear. i found it odd when i read the post and watched videos.
@@petergriffin1546 Hmmm.Something does not sound right. You must have really slow returns? Please share more about your problems. We're not getting the full story, I think.
@@gordonschweizer5154 no mention of any problems with them. should i go to 2 minutes factory setting? steam boiler is 8 years old and serviced annually.
@@gordonschweizer5154 well ran boiler for couple cycles and timed the water return the fill line on glass and watched the pressure drop to zero...i have a 0 to 3 guage. 4 minutes so im guessing 8 min would be to much...
Thank you for your question! I don't exactly know what "E96" means, but I'll find out. I think maybe your processor chip on your VXT is spitting out an error code? It is very rare for it to do that. I've only seen one error code on one unit of the hundreds I've seen overall (I've got it in one of my videos) Does your unit still feed?
At the end you mentioned a flashing screen on the VXT. I’ve seen that, and it’s never good, usually you can pull the chimney collector off and show the client a nice big chunk of block missing, when it’s not that obvious the floor is wet. Then you hear my favorite two lines; - I thought that was normal (&!) - it’s ‘worked’ for years like that I guess we have developed different opinion of ‘working’ as actual Techs on that.l from the client. Then you get accused of ripping them off, because they never had to do that before. ......then it works right for the first time in 20years, and they see the difference on the fuel bill. Back to being a hero again!
Thanks Gordon! You do realize you are literally the only Steamer on YT?! Yeah, there are others but you are the only one I’ve found who stays current with their channel, on this topic. So I recommend it to our techs and customers as reference. Thank you so much for giving this trade your experience as a steam head. It’s the only way left it seems, sadly. Yet there are plenty of legacy systems left that the trade forgot about, that need this for the next generation of techs
The worst case scenario is that you have a major water leak (or a number of little leaks over time). In theory, you have lost over 800 gallons of water from your steam system since the last time your VXT was reset.
The feeder is designed to track water usage or loss of water. If it feeds for one minute, it will display 001, for example, and may represent the loss of about one gallon of water from your steam system. The higher the numbers displayed, the more water possibly being lost from your system. You may have a leak somewhere.
This video is a gem. Thank you for de-mystifying this device. The installer flat out refused to give me any information concerning its programming or operation but as you've shown its really quite simple to get the auto-feeder tuned up. I'm going to note the desired water level on the sight glass then drain the boiler until the LW sensor kicks in......the amount of water in gallons that drains into my bucket at that point will be where I set the water volume dip switch. Thank you again.
Thank you for your kind words!
Good morning Gordon, just wanted to send you a big shout-out and a big thank you for telling me which auto water feeder to purchase. I was able to finally get a Hydrolevel VXT for my steam boiler. Took a couple hours to redo all plumbing and get it hooked up. But I am so very pleased with it and I just wanted to thank you again for explaining all about it and showing the videos explaining it. I would advise everybody that has a steam boiler to purchase one of these because they do work good. Thank you again Gordon keep up the good work. Steve in Wyoming
Your comment made my day!
I appreciate it very much you letting me know this video helped you.
Thank you Mr Gordon for all your advice on the vxt and other nice things you showed me from your other videos. My steam boiler runs perfect now thanks to you !!
Excellent description of VXT methodology. Thank you Gordon. This helps tremendously!👍🏽
Glad it was helpful!
@@gordonschweizer5154 I was able to time and measure exact amount of water per lwco call to reach level be4 Loc. Solved the boiler flooding issue. Again, thanks. My plumber never went over it.😠
@@freddieharps6938 Glad it worked out. That's what this video is for!
Do you have a 30 sec delay or 2 min?
@@gordonschweizer5154 Delay is set for two.
@@freddieharps6938 Good! I used to set @ 30 sec delay, but lately have learned that 2 min delay is better for flood control. Live and learn.
Thank you for another insightful video, Gordon. Please keep them coming. What I found useful is you explaining that both the period after the numbers means there is a call to feed and that blinking numbers means the feeder has already “rolled over” the counter. (Not sure if I phrased that second part correctly). Happy New Year
Thanks Gordon. We use these all the time. Good to know a little more about them.
@ amradco: You are welcome! Been meaning to get this video out for awhile. Would you please share what you found most useful in this video? I'm planning to make another one just on the solenoid valve itself at some point which I hope will also be somewhat useful.
Just found your channel. Swapped from oil to natural gas on Burnham steam boiler. Trying to learn how to do basic maintenance. Retired electrical lineman
Welcome!
What model Burnham did you convert?
Super helpful Very well explained
Thanks for information, pretty helpful to me, it leading to the reset low water reset tab and 30 segond tab buttons, your info help me solved the problem, thanks again
You're most welcome!
Since the time I made this video, I'm now recommending a 2 min delay setting rather than 30 sec.
30 seconds is really for this video, otherwise it'd be too long and even more boring!
And also the 2 min delay recommendation is in the official instructions.
I will make the 2 min recommendation adjustment ASAP, you are the best, thank you so much
Appreciate your knowledge
Great videos 👍
Thanks 👍
Thank you this video answers my questions I learned a lot.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, sir, for your knowledge.
You are most welcome.
Good day your tutorial was very informative
My question is that I for the summer shut down the gas and power supply to the heating system upon powering up and turning on the gas valve the VXT-24 is flashing on /off ,the low water cut off also blinks then stop for around 30 seconds and repeats with no water feeding. Manual feeding works and the glass tube shows the correct amount of water for boiler to turn on .
Please if you can help advise on how to troubleshoot this problem
J C
Thanks!
You may be having an issue with a malfuctioning low water cut off.
Is your LWCO a PSE-802-24 by chance?
Try draining the boiler, pulling the probe, and cleaning it.
If that doesn't work, you may have to replace your LWCO & probe.
@@gordonschweizer5154 Thank you for taking the time to answer my question the Low water cut off is a safeguard 400
You're welcome.
I may, however, be not giving you complete advice.
It seems as if something is interrupting the power to your LWCO, maybe.
You say your VXT is turning off and on & your LWCO is also cycling through its self-check?
Thank you for your most informative video. I've watched of few of your this morning and I should like you to know, you're is the first channel to which I've subscribed :). I think it's wonderful you continue to respond to comments more than two years after posting the vid.
I've heard various answers to this question and would consider your credible. What is a normal about of fill water to us in a cold month? I have two systems, both replaced appx. 7 years ag. They're one pipe systems. The first provides heat to an appx 1340 square foot first floor apartment and the other provides heat to an appx. 2300 square foot second and third floor unit. Both were installed by a plumber I believe to be experienced in steam heat (as difficult as that is to find) and were inspected by the City, so I'm assuming the plumbing was done correctly.
All the steam vents, including the main vents are working properly. There may be one minor leak from between two sections of a radiator (sucky situation, from what I understand), but I don't think that would account for all the water loss on the upper unit system. I'm unaware of any leaks on the first floor system. Do you have any thoughts on how to track down a water leak?
Thanks again for a wonderful video and your insightful responses to comments.
You're welcome!
Any leaks that are visible on a steam system should be dealt with ruthlessly.
Steam is sneaky that way.
For every drop you see, there are three or more you don't. So that "minor" leak really isn't.
Packing nuts on valves must be snug on the stem or steam will wisp thru them unseen.
Union nuts might only leak when the pressure gets above 1 psi on extra cold days.
Best on the market, I always install a pressure regulator on them if supply water pressure is over 60psi. I toured the plant 20 yrs ago. They also make a commercial version with higher gallon feed rates. FYI at that time they also made rolls of pinstripe for cars.
Indeed! Thank you for comments as always.
Did you happen to see my videos of my visit to Hydrolevel's factory last year? They were very gracious to my intrusion!
No doubt you know they are now located in North Haven's old Marlin Firearms factory.
I was no aware they moved? I don’t remember what address they were at when I went. Very welcoming to visitors
@@scottk0623 They were in New Haven on Canal St, IIRC.
They were then, and still are, justifiably proud of their products and enjoy showing them to folks wherever they are located.
Good job Gordon.
Thanks!
Just came across this. I have a 120 model, even though it's a Natural Gas steam boiler. Anyway, we are experiencing steam radiators spitting water. I looked at the boiler and the water tube was over the top. I emptied it and got it down to low-water cutoff. Allowed to refill, but it seems to be calling for water when it's not needed. I can hear it kick in even during the summer. Is indicative of a bad feeder or the low-water cutoff sensor? BTW, my feeder is set to LWC and 3 minutes.
I would say that the low water cut off is sending false signals to the feeder.
Try draining the boiler below the probe and removing it and cleaning it.
Have a replacement probe handy just in case.
If the LWCO is still sending bad signals to the feeder - that is to say you can see water in the glass at or above the proper level & there is a lit period after the numbers on the VXT -then it may be time to replace the LWCO.
Please be aware I can't see the whole picture & there may be other unknown issues!
Is it possible to set the cut in when let’s say when the boiler is 3/4 filled and topped off to full.and how would that be achieved. Great video by the way.
I think the best way would be to fire the boiler, and slowly drain the boiler to trigger the LWCO. Watch as the VXT times out the delay and watch it feed to the desired level. Then I would alter the settings if necessary, test again, and adjust as needed.
I would start at 2min delay/ one gal. per feed. and go from there.
On some boilers, I've had to resort to 2min (or above) delay and shut off at the "LWCO" setting which does not allow the lockout feature to engage IIRC.
Please tell me what is the meaning of the number shown on the water feeder, appreciated
It should display the number of gallons added to the boiler.
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you, is there any limitations for me to pay attention to the numbers? Or just leave it?
@@cliftonliu6054 If the number is a single digit, excellent. Low double digits, great. High double digit, may be a leak somewhere? Triple digits, generally signals a problem or problems requiring immediate attention. Also depends on how long the VXT has been in service and how long ago the VXT was reset.
Informative video, do you know if the water valve can be removed and turned around in the other direction?
Yes, please check my VXT playlist for my videos on how I reverse the valve.
The ideas shown are just my suggestions *only* on how I do it and not authorized by Hydrolevel.
Thank you, I was able to reverse the valve according to your instructions!
@@ebastelli Excellent!
Thanks for the feedback!
Hello my friend, for the first time I am watching your videos and I find them very interesting. What I would like more if you were to make the videos in Spanish because we know a lot of people who do not understand English, my question is the following, after a week I installed a new boiler and installed it also hydrolyze it cdt 24 vl what happens is that suddenly the boil turns off and i don't understand and in the feeding system it indicates LOC
"LOC" means the low water cut off safety control (LWCO) asked the VXT feeder continuously for water for two cycles in a row without satisfying the LWCO.
Either there is little or no water actually going though the feeder into the boiler, or there IS enough water in the boiler, BUT the LWCO is not sensing it thus giving false signals to the VXT, or you have one heck of a leak somewhere in your system.
Hello Gordon. First I want to compliment you on your videos. They are extremely helpful and well-presented. So I recently became responsible for an oil-fired steam heating system. It is quite old but also seems to be quite reliable. Neither the oil burner nor the boiler have been serviced in a few years (like possibly 8 😬) so I’m crossing my fingers and putting together a plan for spring. Since I have no experience with steam systems I am in the process of figuring out how these systems are put together. I’m wondering if you’ve ever seen an auto-feed system that consisted of a proximity switch pointed into the gauge glass hooked to a relay timer hooked to a Skinner solenoid on the feed water line. Is this normal or something my wife’s late husband, who was an accomplished electrical engineer, made up? Also, there is no manual valve on the feed line. I can get it to add water by sliding the proximity switch up the glass though. Is it ok to do that or should I have a manual bypass loop plumbed in?
Thank you for your kind words of praise.
Yes, I'd get your oil burner & boiler looked at as soon a you can by a competent oil/boiler tech.
They are hard to find.
As to your unusual water feed system, we'd all like to see pictures.
Please post them on HeatingHelp.com!
@@gordonschweizer5154 I didn’t think this setup was typical. Can you explain where this VXT system gets it’s signal to turn on from? Is it from the LWCO?
Normally, the VXT is tied into the LWCO for power, neutral or return, and trigger or "feed" signal.
thanks so much... saved the day
You are most welcome!
You're welcome!
How high does it go? Does the number displayed on the screen matter? Mine displayed 13 for several days and the pipes were banging away. Then it went up to 21 and it flooded the boiler before reaching the radiators, luckily I shut it off before it could. Now it’s off or disconnected and it’s displaying 125! F’d up completely, and it’s brand new..just installed boiler... I was told it shouldn’t be opened.. not that I would.. I stumbled on this yesterday when my brother in law told me it sounds like the feeder isn’t sensing and over feeding.
Ok the second part kind of answered my question a bit?.
It may be that the low water cut off is sending spurious signals to the VXT. The LWCO "thinks" it's low on water when in fact it's not.
Has your new boiler been cleaned per manufacturer's instructions? Dirty water is one possible cause of a poor performing LWCO.
Gordon Schweizer thx for answering... I don’t know if they cleaned it.. I’ll ask. I think that was brought up also. Is it the same as skimming? I don’t know about the LWCO either.
@@klp7620 There could be a number of issues here:
The installers may not have done the "near boiler piping" correctly, causing the water in the boiler to be thrown up into the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder.
The water in the system may still be contaminated, either thru no or not enough cleaning and skimming. That will cause "wet steam", sending water up into the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder.
The returns could be clogged and not allowing the water to return to the boiler quickly, causing the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder.
The pressure controller may be allowing excessive pressure to build up in the system (or your boiler is over-sized or over-fired or both), holding water up in the pipes and returns, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop, causing the LWCO to ask for water from the feeder.
You could have some of your radiator valves partly closed, holding water in the radiators, which causes water to be held up in the system, which causes the water level in the boiler to drop... you get the idea.
Gordon, If the low water shut off malfunctions and sends signals to the HydroLevel I am concerned that it could flood the system, I read about an interrupter switch that senses excessive pressure in the system and kills the feed wire, do you recommend one and where is it to be installed?
We haven't done anything like what you suggest, so it would be taking on airs if we gave any recommendations as to that. It certainly merits discussion, however. Please don't take this as an end to the matter.
Maybe we could come up with a plan.
I take it you have had the unfortunate experience of a flooded steam boiler?
Hello and thank you for your video. My question is the following, I have the vx24. And the counter keeps going up and up as if it was feeding the boiler. However I dont think it actually is feeding. Since the start of this season the counter was reading 163 times. I've check for leaks everywhere around the house and around boiler and there are none. The boiler is a crown boiler installed in 2015. Could there be an issue with the counter it self??
Hi! I think you are largely correct. It may be that for some reason the actual amount of water passing thru the vxt's valve is very low but not zero.
Have you had to add any water manually to get your boiler to fire?
@@gordonschweizer5154Sir thank you very much for your reply, for your knowledge and assistance with this. To answer your question, no I haven't had to add any water to start it. Not even normal operation during the winter season. I have done some maintenance by draining some of the old water and cleaning some of the gunk but nothing more. According to the glass level the water inside boiler is alway at a proper level. Glass is always showing full or nearly full. And like I said before, there are no leaks anywhere. Would you be kind and also tell me if the red valves at each end of the glass level be set fully open?? And should the manual water feeder valve thats near the VXT be set to a close or open position?
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you again for your assistance and please forgive my ignorance in this matter. 🙄🤔
@@OSCARANDRES039 It is possible that your sight glass might be clogged with mud in the trappings and might not be telling your true water level in your boiler.
The sight glass valves should be always open unless servicing it.
The manual fill valve/VXT by-pass should always be shut unless adding water manually.
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you again!!
great video golden. I have a question. our feeder is at # 5 but started at #2.why did it go up to 5?
The VXT feeder is designed to add a timed measured amount of water to your steam boiler, after a preset delay, upon a call from the boiler's low water cut off.
It very roughly corresponds to one gallon per unit count. Very roughly!
Your mileage may vary!
So, the counter number displayed *may* indicate a small leak somewhere. The VXT cannot tell you where the putative leak is, only that you may have one.
I really like your video, I wish I would have seen it before buying my water feeder. I didn’t know they had different voltages and I ended up buying a 124v water feeder when my low water cut-off is 24v. Is there a way to wire up my low water cut-off of 24v and my water feeder of 124v? Thank you in advance and have a terrific day
What model boiler do you have? I'm going to assume its atmospheric gas fired? What make and model LWCO is on it? It may be possible to wire it just so with a clever use of a RIB relay ("relay in a box"). I assume you can't return the feeder and exchange it for the one with the "correct" voltage?
Gordon Schweizer I think I will try to buy the right one. I hope I didn’t get the low water cut off burned for trying to connect the wrong one
@@ricardoguzmanoritz14 : Just to test, I hooked up 24V to the VXT-120 shown above and nothing bad happened, but it didn't "light up" (as expected). I then re-tested the same unit with 120 volts and it worked perfectly, so no worries on that score. If, however, a VXT-24 were exposed to 120v, I'm reasonably certain it would not end well for the 24 volt unit. You might not need to remove/un-solder the complete valve assembly to replace the units, just make sure to remove the green coil (120v) and put the blue one (24v) in its place, and it will be good to go. I hope that helps!
Great video! Does the ground wire in a 14/3 go unused in this system?
Thank you!
There is a small hole in the chassis below the electronics (time index 1:08) where you might run a 8-32 self-tapping ground screw.
120v was connected to 24v unit, is there any way to repair it?
Most likely not.
What happened, exactly?
How long was the 24v circuit exposed to 120v?
What looks "smoked" on the circuit board?
Sir , today I check the boiler water level and I notice the water inside the glass fluctuating. Is this normal?? If not how can I correct this condition?? Thank you
While the boiler is making steam, some fluctuation is normal.
Any more than plus or minus one inch from the resting water line is mostly likely too much.
@@gordonschweizer5154 thank you very much. 🤗
@@gordonschweizer5154 hello sir, I'm back with another question. My mothers apartment has 6 radiators but only 2 that are actually working. The other 4 have been turn off at the valve because they make her apartment to hot and also make alot of noise. Banging all day and night. Would it be bad for the boiler or the pipes themselves just having the 2 radiators working ?? Note.. I did tilt the banging radiators several inches but it did not make any difference in the. Noise. So I turn those 4 off. The crown boiler is has an 85,000 BTu output and a 103,000 BTU input. Currently working nicely. I drain all the water this weekend and fill it back up. unclog the sight glass as well as the pressure gauge and lower the pressuretrol settings to 1.5 PSI on the main and .5 on the differential
@@gordonschweizer5154 also no more issues with the vxt. When I drain the water the WCO kick in and hit the boiler off. Several minutes later the VXT kick in and a call for water was started by it. And the water level on the sight glass went up. I also added a 4" brass attention tube to the pigtail so that it sticks out further away from the boiler and makes it easier for servicing
@@gordonschweizer5154 I've been getting alot of banging in the pipe system of my steam boiler. I believe us due to the pitch angle of the manifold pipe coming out of the boiler. Could I replace a 6" portion of that pipe to a shorter 4" section to make the pipe pitch more downward to the boiler thus allowing the condense water to return to the boiler faster and more freely. What do you think?
What if Lwco bringing in slightly too much water; to top of sight glass? Not flooding but just too high?
What is the feed amount switch set to? 1 gal? or LWCO? or ? I've also found that rarely, the flow restrictor build into the valve body gets dislodged and it will feed too much on a cycle.
Gordon Schweizer omg. It’s currently set at 3gal, 8min. I think I will cut that down to four minutes 1 gallon, what do you think?
@@jakehits Remember, I can't see your whole boiler situation, so I'm going by some creative guesswork. So, here goes: Yes, try 1 gallon per feed cycle. Then you might try to set the feed delay to 30 seconds, than slowly drain the boiler until the low water cut off is triggered (and a period appears after the three numbers on the VXT). See what happens to the water level. Is it still too high? Or too low? If it too low, set feed cycle to 2 gal and try again. If too high, well, that might be a totally different issue and we'll get to that if needed.
An eight minute delay is a bit long it seems to me. Let me ask you this: When the boiler runs for a while, what happens to the water level? If it drops in the sightglass at the end of a long cycle, how long does the water take to return to where it started, more or less? If it taking longer than 2 min, you've got a problem somewhere in the system. It most cases, 30 seconds should be long enough.
Gordon Schweizer Great idea and thanks so much for the insight. I will try that next time. This boiler is in the basement and heats the third floor of a three family house so the steam has to travel quite a distance. The water returns to about where it started in the sight glass but I don’t know how long it takes since I haven’t ever sat and watched it from when the thermostat was cut off after a long heat session. I will try that also.
@@jakehits I'm glad I can help. Third floor radiators only? That's certainly unusual! I'm going to assume some more and say this is one-pipe steam? If so, if you can, please make sure the in-let valves on those radiators are all fully open. Partly open valves can delay water return back to the boiler.
Hydrolevel says on steam boiler 8 mins is good setting. How can you verify on a one pipe steam system?
Hmmm. Not sure where Hydrolevel says "8 mins is a good setting" for a steam boiler. Were does it say that in the instructions for the VXT?
@@gordonschweizer5154 i called customer service and they said go with 8 i have one pipe steam oil steam sys.. he was clear. i found it odd when i read the post and watched videos.
@@petergriffin1546 Hmmm.Something does not sound right. You must have really slow returns? Please share more about your problems.
We're not getting the full story, I think.
@@gordonschweizer5154 no mention of any problems with them. should i go to 2 minutes factory setting? steam boiler is 8 years old and serviced annually.
@@gordonschweizer5154 well ran boiler for couple cycles and timed the water return the fill line on glass and watched the pressure drop to zero...i have a 0 to 3 guage.
4 minutes
so im guessing 8 min would be to much...
Mines is reading E-96. What does that mean?
Thank you for your question!
I don't exactly know what "E96" means, but I'll find out.
I think maybe your processor chip on your VXT is spitting out an error code?
It is very rare for it to do that. I've only seen one error code on one unit of the hundreds I've seen overall (I've got it in one of my videos)
Does your unit still feed?
At the end you mentioned a flashing screen on the VXT.
I’ve seen that, and it’s never good, usually you can pull the chimney collector off and show the client a nice big chunk of block missing, when it’s not that obvious the floor is wet. Then you hear my favorite two lines;
- I thought that was normal (&!)
- it’s ‘worked’ for years like that
I guess we have developed different opinion of ‘working’ as actual Techs on that.l from the client. Then you get accused of ripping them off, because they never had to do that before.
......then it works right for the first time in 20years, and they see the difference on the fuel bill.
Back to being a hero again!
Thanks Gordon!
You do realize you are literally the only Steamer on YT?!
Yeah, there are others but you are the only one I’ve found who stays current with their channel, on this topic. So I recommend it to our techs and customers as reference.
Thank you so much for giving this trade your experience as a steam head. It’s the only way left it seems, sadly. Yet there are plenty of legacy systems left that the trade forgot about, that need this for the next generation of techs
I love your "blah! blah! blah!" notes. Is that to keep you on track during recording? :)
Those notes were made some years ago by my cheeky daughter as a comment about her dad yammering on and on about science ;-)
Hi my water feeder takes alot of water model wf2 -u24
Hard to know what exactly is going on from my vantage point, but I would recommend replacing your wf2-u24 with a VXT-24 for starters
Great video
Thanks!
My has a 833 number on the screen 1 don’t know why ?
The worst case scenario is that you have a major water leak (or a number of little leaks over time).
In theory, you have lost over 800 gallons of water from your steam system since the last time your VXT was reset.
What does it mean when the numbers go up?
The feeder is designed to track water usage or loss of water.
If it feeds for one minute, it will display 001, for example, and may represent the loss of about one gallon of water from your steam system.
The higher the numbers displayed, the more water possibly being lost from your system.
You may have a leak somewhere.