Boiler Leaking Water

When this becomes an emergency

• There's a wet ring or a slow puddle spreading under the boiler jacket.
• The gauge keeps drifting up past the spot it normally rests at.
• The relief valve is letting go every cycle rather than once in a blue moon.
• Green or white crust has formed on the copper fittings above the unit.

What a pro does

Water under a boiler almost never starts at the boiler shell itself. A tech follows the wet trail back uphill to whatever is actually weeping, usually a circulator flange gasket, a tired backflow preventer, or the union at a zone valve that's been cycling since October. Pressure matters too. When the gauge keeps climbing and the relief valve lets go every cycle, the expansion tank has generally lost its air charge and the heated water has nowhere left to expand into. Lake-country places that sit on setback for weeks at a stretch make this harder to catch, because a slow weep has time to soak subfloor and joist before anyone walks back in the door. Killing power at the breaker and closing the cold feed keeps a small problem small until someone can look at it.

Frequently asked questions

Boiler Leaking Water?

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