1. Water treatment or lack thereof:
Whether there’s no water treatment or improper dosing and chemical types, this can be a potential risk for your boiler. The water chemistry is often neglected in boiler rooms leaving the boiler to fend for itself against the harmful deposits that make up water can leave behind news flash is not going to happen. Water contains various minerals and oxygen Content that, when heated, can cause foaming scaling and corrosion within the boiler. These chemicals are prescribed specifically for the water conditions within the plant to help ward off these potential hazards. Prolonged neglect leads to even more significant problems.
2. Improper blowdown procedures:
Often whether from just not understanding the importance of blowdowns, incorrect procedures not wanting to waste energy, or just simply not doing them. The blowdown of a steam boiler is critical; these deposits that we speak of will cling to the boiler’s metal surfaces and accumulate in the boiler’s belly area, Performing these daily blowdowns is critical to ensure that the scale is being removed. Different boilers may require different blowdown rates based on the makeup water percentage and other operating conditions. Now, most facilities ensure that a blowdown is performed daily at a minimum, whereas usually, they strive once per shift to conduct conductive blowdown. These incremental blowdowns waste a bit of steam. Yet, the benefit of the blowdown far outweighs the minimal loss compared to the potential risk associated with not performing a blowdown. Just remember with your blowdowns to perform blowdowns on the water column and ensure that you have your continuous or surface blow open as applicable and perform the bottom blowdown
3. Lack of maintenance:
It seems to be a no-brainer, but some boilers never get the recommended preventative maintenance, and as the old saying goes, you plan your equipment’s maintenance, or it will plan it for itself. Refer to your operator’s manual for specific maintenance intervals for each boiler, while many boilers’ maintenance can be generalized. Some models may have unique or particular Requirements for their routine and regular maintenance. Partner with a local qualified boiler service provider to Perform routine and planned maintenance and keep your boiler running in good condition throughout the year.
4. Lack of operator training:
Knowing how always helps, operators get put into positions to oversee boiler operations and perform required maintenance with little to no training or experience. Facilities will staff a place with an expectation that on-the-job training will occur when no one else is working with the operators. Boilers are pretty safe, considering they are operated and maintained properly. The best approach to ensure this is done is to have operators trained with qualified safety and operations training.
5. Soot and scale:
All these things we’ve been discussing lead collectively lead us to write here soot and scale in any amount spell trouble for a boiler. A boiler that is not being blown down will see problems with scale increased scale equals over firing and then leads to a whole host of other issues, not to mention the excess fuel consumption. The little things that are done consistently add to the big things that count. Blowing down the boiler daily checking the stack temperature are two critical steps to increase these systems running at their top performance. Soot and scale both serve as insulators, and when we consider the basic heat exchange principle, then the last thing our boilers need on either side of the heat transfer area is an insulator we want maximum efficiency in the heat exchange, and this means to ensure that we don’t have the scale or suit accumulation and finally number one
6. Low water:
If you didn’t already know it, low water in a boiler room could become catastrophic fast again. Lack of maintenance is usually what leads to common water situations. In a boiler, low water occurs when the water level inside the vessel falls below a specific Area. Even a slight deviation of the water level can cause the tubes to be blistered or ruptured. The boiler’s furnace is generating incredibly high temperatures inside the fireside, and the water serves to absorb that this heat not having the metal surfaces protected by the water wall can ruin equipment and cause severe personnel and property damage. The gauge glass is your visual indicator of the boiler’s water level. Learn to fix your eyes upon The gauge glass near every time you enter your mechanical rooms to ensure that you understand your boiler’s water level conditions and how certain evolutions may cause it to fluctuate. The most common reason for a low water situation in a boiler is the failure of the low water cutout. The low water cutout should be checked daily to ensure that it’s cutting out when it is supposed to, and some facilities even replace these components at set intervals regardless of their operating conditions. This device easily would rank as what most would consider the most critical boiler room component.
