Chicago... All business people should be as honest as this "Cat." This video saved me 5 to $6000 ... Long and short of it ...Its -2 degrees no heat in my building .service tec comes in and says you need a new boiler this is "Junk" never even took a tool out of his little bag.. saw the soot, saw what was happening , and said it's Junk.. Found Steve on you tube... exact same problem saw this video and saved me from being ripped off..... Fixed it my self for under $100. clean as a whistle hasn't run this good in 30 years.. "Steve your a real Professional "... Thanks for sharing Good luck in your business Ed
steven lavimoniere Was in my car when your reply cam in, so i could not reply with my thoughts. I am a firm believer in not just fixing whats broken but why it failed . It is my opinion. based on my experience with internal combustion engines of the 50s and 60s there was a incorrect air flow through the system.. While my unit was no where near the amount of soot as the one in the video there was still a problem... I believe it was the collector unit that is assembled with silicone .. I noticed that there seemed to small gaps in the collector assembly and it was not tight assembly any more causing the unit to suck air from the top of unit instead of the bottom thus causing an incorrect exhaust flow combined with a unit that had not been cleaned in a very long time.. under the circumstances (No Heat single digit temps) I just silicone the joints till I can get a new unit or fix the old one in the summer.. What do you think??? Thanks again Your opinion is well respected Ed
Steve, your the man. Im a service tech in NJ and I probley would have just replaced the switch and called it a day. You went above and beyond opening up that boilor and vacuuming all that out. Im scheduled for a call tomorrow, same thing my service is telling me? Boilor cycling on and off. But after watching your video im sure gonna open it up and vac it out now too. Great Job
i have worked on the ones with the domestic water heater in them also .i am not a big fan eather .but i will work on anything .always something new to learn as i go.
its one of the first direct vent boilers that came out ..don't need a chiminey i guess there ok for what they are .i have worked on quite a fue over the years and as they get older more problems arise.its like that with every thing thow.i still like a old style boiler that vents into a chiminey i guess i am old school .less thing that can break is always a good thing .
yes mantance is key even more so if there in a wet damp basement .unit has never been serviced or checked in 17 years.the burner tubes were rusty and mucked up thats why it sooted i am thinking.
Wow that is sooted up bad. You can tee in your manometer like a Testo 510 to check if that pressure switch is working correctly. That will also tell you if the inducer is working or vent is blocked. Maintenance is key. Good job.
Wow! I thought that was an oil boiler when i saw the soot! So the fan sucks the fumes from the fire and blows them out the vent and the vacuum switch check to see the fans started?
you're right Steven, I've never seen a gas burner that filthy, I wonder if there's a difference of the natural gas pipe to around Boston and down there, like higher sulfer content?
I've never seen a gas burner so dirty, I had to do a double take to see if it was oil burner. Was that a dirt floor basement? I'm was thinking the draft is sucking in a lot of dust and dryer lint to get that bad?. Good Job as usual Steven
I had a limit problem a week ago with the same weil McCain ga3 or something....was on the phone with tech for 45 mins...water thermisters dissagree??? Replaced the temp sensor still had issues, come to find out all it was was a bad ground. I cut the green from the module and gave it a good ground and sure enough!!!
Jeeze.those burners must have been way out of adjustment to get that kind of soot. I don't do hydronic, but would a manometer have helped diagnosis that problem?
Hey Steven!! We had WM's boilers here were I live. I was not impressed with them AT ALL. Always something wrong with dang thing's. There were two maybe about the size of dishwasher, now we have one doing heating & hot water too. They replaced to two boilers & a gas water heater!! Wonder how much my landlord is saving now. Lol
Nice work with that forced air gas boiler Steve. Does natural gas usually produce soot in a boiler? I thought soot is only produced in oil fired equipment.
Thanks for the vid Steven, I have an HE 4 and the blower motor seems to not want to spin up. It moves a little then stops. Then moves some more then stops. Do you think I can get away with just replacing the motor, or should the bearing be replaced too?
You're a true professional, man. Nice work. You said he might be looking for a new boiler? why? My boiler is a top of the line Weil Maclean and about 6 years old. I was having the same problem, and it was just the vacuum switch. Was all the soot an indication of possibly needing a new boiler? Thanks.
Sometimes I would take a old cloths hanger into heat exchanger after removing burners to clean soot out if I couldn't get it apart. Inspect with mirror before and after.
Steve, I've been having a similar issue. The control module,pressure switch,gas valve, internal thermostat and ignitor are all new. The boiler will run for hours and then in the middle of the night it will go on off on off on off really quick. The control module will click on off on off on off. I blew into the orange hose and it seems to be free flowing. I blew into the white hose and that seems to be a little more restricted. When the boiler is cycling on off on off on off and I shut the power down for a few minutes and start it back up I notice that the pressure switch light on the control panel blinks. Is that a code saying that was the reason why the boiler didn't restart? Please help i've been without heat now for 3 days. Thanks -Luis
Luis Castro maybe your fan is not pulling in the vac switch good is there a blockage in the exast pipe?? its hard to say unless i am there to test thing as it runs .. it could be a host of things.you will have to test with a meter to find the problem as it happens . are the vac switches droping out??if so check the fan and smoke pipe.maybe there is a blockage in the tubing .check that also were it connects to the boiler sometimes it gets blocked at ports. use a tstat wire to clear. i have seen bees in smoke pipe .like i said you have to test with a meter to find the problem but follow the blinks that will tell you were to start looking .
I did notice when I blew into the red hose the flow was smooth. When I blew into the white hose it was harder. So by watching your video I used a round file and cleaned the inlet where the white hose is connected to. After that i blew into the hose again and it was smooth. The boiler seems to be running good now. My question is my thermostat is set to 75 degrees and I noticed today that my living room was 72 degrees. Is it common for that much of a swing in temperature in order for the house to get back up to 75 degrees?
Thankful I have natrual gas after watching all your videos. If he cleaned it every year would it still be okay? Or is there an underlying problem causing it to sout up ?
its a boiler it does not have a flame sencer . boiler was full of soot .once i cleaned it out it still didn;t want to run so i changed out the vac switch and she fired up .the switch was not closing and allow the boiler to fire when running
Steve, I have this same boiler and was thinking about keeping on hand a few likely parts in case of a breakdown in the middle of the night. Was going to pick up a control module. What is a estimated price I should find this for. And what other likely part have you seen fail on this model? Is that vacuum switch that goes often? Thanks, great vid. Dan Altoona Pa.
there is no way to tell what is going to fail i would just wait till it stopped working then fix it .but that just me .just make sure you clean the burners every year
steven lavimoniere yup I see it better now Its funny sometimes when I look at a problem my mind just jumps to all the possible things that could be wrong instead of taking a logical approach to the problem. The unit obviously was firing and igniting, the fan was running, the Gas valve opened, you had draft, it certainly wasn;t hitting the high limit. Pressure switch is a good place to start. Where would you go though if you tested the pressure switch and say it was good?
Hello Steve, enjoy your vids very helpfull!! This year I notice my (oil) weil Maclean boiler short cycle (on then off-) every now and then... What causes this?
I worked on one of those before the fucking draft motor wasn't coming up to full speed causing the pressure switch to open ! good service video as alway
no i don t think so gas is gas just shit systems durty ect and thay can soot sometimes a bad gas valve ect a lot of things can make a gas boiller soot .up never fun to clean them gas soot is worse then oil soot its finer and goes everywere if not carefull
Chicago...
All business people should be as honest as this "Cat."
This video saved me 5 to $6000 ... Long and short of it ...Its -2 degrees no heat in my building .service tec comes in and says you need a new boiler this is "Junk" never even took a tool out of his little bag.. saw the soot, saw what was happening , and said it's Junk..
Found Steve on you tube... exact same problem saw this video and saved me from being ripped off..... Fixed it my self for under $100. clean as a whistle hasn't run this good in 30 years.. "Steve your a real Professional "... Thanks for sharing
Good luck in your business
Ed
Magnum Real Estate keep a eye on it .. there is a reasion to sooted up .. make sure all air bands are open all the way
Thank I will
steven lavimoniere Was in my car when your reply cam in, so i could not reply with my thoughts.
I am a firm believer in not just fixing whats broken but why it failed . It is my opinion. based on my experience with internal combustion engines of the 50s and 60s there was a incorrect air flow through the system.. While my unit was no where near the amount of soot as the one in the video there was still a problem... I believe it was the collector unit that is assembled with silicone .. I noticed that there seemed to small gaps in the collector assembly and it was not tight assembly any more causing the unit to suck air from the top of unit instead of the bottom thus causing an incorrect exhaust flow combined with a unit that had not been cleaned in a very long time.. under the circumstances (No Heat single digit temps) I just silicone the joints till I can get a new unit or fix the old one in the summer.. What do you think???
Thanks again
Your opinion is well respected
Ed
Steve, your the man. Im a service tech in NJ and I probley would have just replaced the switch and called it a day. You went above and beyond opening up that boilor and vacuuming all that out. Im scheduled for a call tomorrow, same thing my service is telling me? Boilor cycling on and off. But after watching your video im sure gonna open it up and vac it out now too. Great Job
Gary Schumacher good luck with the call it could be anything .
i have worked on the ones with the domestic water heater in them also .i am not a big fan eather .but i will work on anything .always something new to learn as i go.
its one of the first direct vent boilers that came out ..don't need a chiminey i guess there ok for what they are .i have worked on quite a fue over the years and as they get older more problems arise.its like that with every thing thow.i still like a old style boiler that vents into a chiminey i guess i am old school .less thing that can break is always a good thing .
yes mantance is key even more so if there in a wet damp basement .unit has never been serviced or checked in 17 years.the burner tubes were rusty and mucked up thats why it sooted i am thinking.
great teaching! The northeast folks will stay warm. Thanks, Dude!
Wow that is sooted up bad. You can tee in your manometer like a Testo 510 to check if that pressure switch is working correctly. That will also tell you if the inducer is working or vent is blocked. Maintenance is key. Good job.
great video bud. I'm having a vacuum switch problem too hoping this will fix it.
yes the burners were really durty that would make it soot up like that..
Thank you for taking the time to video and then post your work.
Hey man that video is Very informative 👌. Good looking out.
nice job Steven. That thing looked like it was burning #2 with all that soot.
Wow! I thought that was an oil boiler when i saw the soot!
So the fan sucks the fumes from the fire and blows them out the vent and the vacuum switch check to see the fans started?
Nice job and video like always Steven
you're right Steven, I've never seen a gas burner that filthy, I wonder if there's a difference of the natural gas pipe to around Boston and down there, like higher sulfer content?
soot is not the norm.but it happens it the burners are durty, ect lack of mantance the gas valve could be bad usally soot means air /flue mix is wrong
I've never seen a gas burner so dirty, I had to do a double take to see if it was oil burner. Was that a dirt floor basement? I'm was thinking the draft is sucking in a lot of dust and dryer lint to get that bad?. Good Job as usual Steven
Hey Steve how are You? I hav edf to service the same boiler like you do. Can you tell what the water column for the vaccum switch is
I had a limit problem a week ago with the same weil McCain ga3 or something....was on the phone with tech for 45 mins...water thermisters dissagree??? Replaced the temp sensor still had issues, come to find out all it was was a bad ground. I cut the green from the module and gave it a good ground and sure enough!!!
Jeeze.those burners must have been way out of adjustment to get that kind of soot.
I don't do hydronic, but would a manometer have helped diagnosis that problem?
Hey Steven!! We had WM's boilers here were I live. I was not impressed with them AT ALL. Always something wrong with dang thing's. There were two maybe about the size of dishwasher, now we have one doing heating & hot water too. They replaced to two boilers & a gas water heater!! Wonder how much my landlord is saving now. Lol
yes thats how it works
thanks Steve, ended up being the vent damper was bad.
Gary Schumacher like i said yesterday it could be anything .good job ,i do see a lot of vent damper that fail
How much pressure should we be reading at the pressure line?
thank you .you are a good teacher
Nice work with that forced air gas boiler Steve. Does natural gas usually produce soot in a boiler? I thought soot is only produced in oil fired equipment.
Thanks for the vid Steven, I have an HE 4 and the blower motor seems to not want to spin up. It moves a little then stops. Then moves some more then stops. Do you think I can get away with just replacing the motor, or should the bearing be replaced too?
You're a true professional, man. Nice work. You said he might be looking for a new boiler? why? My boiler is a top of the line Weil Maclean and about 6 years old. I was having the same problem, and it was just the vacuum switch. Was all the soot an indication of possibly needing a new boiler? Thanks.
thanks paltech
Sometimes I would take a old cloths hanger into heat exchanger after removing burners to clean soot out if I couldn't get it apart. Inspect with mirror before and after.
Steve, I've been having a similar issue. The control module,pressure switch,gas valve, internal thermostat and ignitor are all new. The boiler will run for hours and then in the middle of the night it will go on off on off on off really quick. The control module will click on off on off on off. I blew into the orange hose and it seems to be free flowing. I blew into the white hose and that seems to be a little more restricted. When the boiler is cycling on off on off on off and I shut the power down for a few minutes and start it back up I notice that the pressure switch light on the control panel blinks. Is that a code saying that was the reason why the boiler didn't restart? Please help i've been without heat now for 3 days.
Thanks
-Luis
Luis Castro maybe your fan is not pulling in the vac switch good is there a blockage in the exast pipe?? its hard to say unless i am there to test thing as it runs .. it could be a host of things.you will have to test with a meter to find the problem as it happens . are the vac switches droping out??if so check the fan and smoke pipe.maybe there is a blockage in the tubing .check that also were it connects to the boiler sometimes it gets blocked at ports. use a tstat wire to clear. i have seen bees in smoke pipe .like i said you have to test with a meter to find the problem but follow the blinks that will tell you were to start looking .
I did notice when I blew into the red hose the flow was smooth. When I blew into the white hose it was harder. So by watching your video I used a round file and cleaned the inlet where the white hose is connected to. After that i blew into the hose again and it was smooth. The boiler seems to be running good now. My question is my thermostat is set to 75 degrees and I noticed today that my living room was 72 degrees. Is it common for that much of a swing in temperature in order for the house to get back up to 75 degrees?
Thankful I have natrual gas after watching all your videos.
If he cleaned it every year would it still be okay? Or is there an underlying problem causing it to sout up ?
Was the switch closes pre ignition then opening after ignition? What kind of draft did the manometer read on draft. Seems like a flame sensing issue
its a boiler it does not have a flame sencer . boiler was full of soot .once i cleaned it out it still didn;t want to run so i changed out the vac switch and she fired up .the switch was not closing and allow the boiler to fire when running
whats the purpose of jumpin out the thermostat steve?
Blimie Friedman to get it to run
the burner tubes were really durty thats were the soot came from ..
Thanks Brother massive help!!!
Mine is from 1988 and still working today if you like pictures I can get you some had to get a lot of parts but it's been good to us
How can the Vacuum switch cause the unit to cycle on (and off) when there is no call for heat?
i have seen many gas boiler soot up happens more then you would think..
great video man do you ever in counter high efficiency equipment
+All White ya some time s
Steve, I have this same boiler and was thinking about keeping on hand a few likely parts in case of a breakdown in the middle of the night. Was going to pick up a control module. What is a estimated price I should find this for. And what other likely part have you seen fail on this model? Is that vacuum switch that goes often? Thanks, great vid. Dan Altoona Pa.
there is no way to tell what is going to fail i would just wait till it stopped working then fix it .but that just me .just make sure you clean the burners every year
nice catch on that one. Now can you explain what led you to believe it was the pressure switch?
it just seems like bamm u slapped your jumpers right on the the problem. Could you give a breakdown of what you were thinking
because after i clean the boiler out the switch still was not pulling in as it should,, so it had to be replaced very simple
it would run for like 5 seconds then drop out so i jumped out tyhe switch and it keep running thats what led me to say it was the pressure switch
steven lavimoniere yup I see it better now Its funny sometimes when I look at a problem my mind just jumps to all the possible things that could be wrong instead of taking a logical approach to the problem. The unit obviously was firing and igniting, the fan was running, the Gas valve opened, you had draft, it certainly wasn;t hitting the high limit. Pressure switch is a good place to start. Where would you go though if you tested the pressure switch and say it was good?
Hello Steve, enjoy your vids very helpfull!! This year I notice my (oil) weil Maclean boiler short cycle (on then off-) every now and then... What causes this?
Hi mate how are u OK mate u do. A relly good job on here
hai steven ,i just finish hvac school on penn foster ,how can i find a service technician helper job like you ,thank you
chen chris just keep looking and calling is all i can say .. its america dreams do come true
I worked on one of those before the fucking draft motor wasn't coming up to full speed causing the pressure switch to open ! good service video as alway
there not the best boilers on the market i have worked on quite a fue .
mine is firing up all of a sudden, no flames at all
Pa Dave did u fix?
Oh my bad u never had flame. It looked like u had an igniter glow tho
no i don t think so gas is gas just shit systems durty ect and thay can soot sometimes a bad gas valve ect a lot of things can make a gas boiller soot .up never fun to clean them gas soot is worse then oil soot its finer and goes everywere if not carefull
Isn't it 1".00 wc
Wish I could hear a word u saying