Boiler Leaking Water

When this becomes an emergency

• There's a damp ring spreading across the basement floor under the boiler jacket.
• The gauge needle sits well above its usual mark and keeps creeping up as the burner runs.
• Water drips from the relief valve discharge pipe continuously rather than in an occasional burst.
• Green or white crust has formed on the copper fittings above the unit.

What a pro does

Most leaks trace to a fitting or a pump seal rather than the vessel. In the older farmhouses around here, a boiler that's been fed by a hydronic loop extended room by room over forty years has a lot of joints, and a tech walks the near-boiler piping with a flashlight and a dry rag to find which one is actually weeping before anyone talks about replacement. Circulator flange gaskets and the automatic feed valve are two of the usual finds. A relief valve that keeps discharging is normally healthy, and the real fault is upstream in an expansion tank that's lost its air cushion. On an unheated stone basement wall, condensation off cold return piping can also masquerade as a leak, which is why a technician marks the wet spot and comes back to it. Shutting power at the switch and closing the feed valve keeps things stable in the meantime.

Frequently asked questions

Boiler Leaking Water?

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