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Posted by Steve on September 17, 2011 at 14:01:33:
My house is a triplex. I bought it in 1982. It had two SlantFin M100 steam boilers, one servicing about 1200 SF, the other servicing a mere 650 SF apartment.
I pulled the small one and replaced it with a standard residential oil fired water heater that uses a homemade tube in tube heat exchanger to run radiant underfloor heat. That was installed 14 years ago and has run flawlessly though I just replaced the water heater last year.
The other Slant Fin runs and runs. It developed a leak about a decade ago, so I went to the dump, found an M100, pulled the section that I needed, bought a nipple kit and rebuilt it, and it has run fine ever since.
Other than the leak, the only repair that has been needed was a leak in the Hartford Look which was easily fixed.
I like my M-100 but I used to use a boiler chem that turned from (I think) blue to red indicating that it needed replacing. Sadly, this is no longer available.
My understanding is that if the water remains alkaline rust cannot form and I suspect that the blue to red indicated the switch from alkaline to neutral/acid.
I know in big commercial units that they add sodium hydroxide and wonder are there any available chemicals to maintain the proper conditions so that rust does not form, as I'm very happy with my steam unit and want it to last another twenty years.
Can anyone suggest where I can find some good boiler chem conditioner for a residential steam unit?
Webb used to sell the one I formerly bought, but they no longer have them.