Boiler Problems!

It is cold outside! 25 below Fahrenheit with windchill. That is -32 Celsius! Esther woke up last night and wanted a bottle. We have a little space heater in our room since we feel it is unnecessary to heat the whole house when we all are in one room at night. However, when I got down it was cold. Really cold in the house. The boiler was not kicking in and great concerned gripped me since last night was the coldest of the year.

Our boiler is original to the house (1906). It is cast iron and was originally fired with coal. All coal fired cast iron boilers were converted to oil burners in the -50's. Needless to say it is a little intimidating to work on an old relic like that especially knowing that the whole thing was wrapped in asbestos in the -50's.

I grabbed my tools around 4 o'clock in the morning and went down to the basement half anticipating that I would have to call the emergency master plumber at 8 and pay an arm and a leg for service.

I tinkered with it and got it to fire up the starting cycle but it would shut down right before the flame came on. I took the sensor out and cleaned it a little and that seem to make it work (with a prayer or two...). Now the boiler is humming again but I am a little scared of letting it shut off. Who knows if it will start again...

This is the apparatus that sits at the bottom of the giant cast iron boiler. Picture is borrowed from carsondunlop.com