Old Style Boiler Expansion Tank

The expansion tank has had it.

Old style boiler expansion tank.

An expansion tank is not found in steam boiler systems which create heat by circulating hot vapor rather than hot water through the pipes and radiators. Finned copper baseboard convectors unit heaters cast iron radiators or cast iron heating baseboards and the heat output of the heating boiler in 1000s of btus hour or output btuh. To use these boiler expansion tank sizing charts you need to know just the type of heating system radiation used. The tank will work fine until it rusts out provided that it is maintained.

A description of how the old style expansion tank provides a cushion for expanding water in a hot water boiler system. The tank is partially filled with air whose compressibility cushions shock caused by water hammer and absorbs excess water pressure caused by thermal expansion. This video is part of the heating and. I have an old boiler in my 1868 brick house with the old style steel horizontal expansion tank.

Replacing old style expansion tank hi i have a 1 story ranch with a forced hot water boiler with an old ceiling mounted expansion tank. I d like to replace this with a new bladder style tank due to a few pitted spots that look like they re about to spring a leak. I would like to replace it with a bladder style tank but i am not sure where to the plumb the new tank and what changes new valves. An expansion tank or expansion vessel is a small tank used to protect closed not open to atmospheric pressure water heating systems and domestic hot water systems from excessive pressure.

So remaining life expectancy depending on quality may be 40 years. Draining water out of a waterlogged expansion tank is a common heating boiler service procedure used to replace a lost air charge. In that it has to be drained as part of a maintenance scheduled. Hot water heating system expansion tank compression tank drain procedure to re charge lost air.

I have patched the thing numerous times with epoxy putty but new leaks keep popping up. Steam boilers are simpler systems that lack several components found in hot water boiler systems such as the circulating pump expansion tank and regulators for water pressure and temperature. Other than that the old non diaphragm type of boiler expansion tank is fine. This article describes the steps in draining of a steel compression or expansion tank used on hot water system heating boilers hydronic heat.