Boiler Auto feed Installation...

[racerc20]

Hi all new here and new to major plumbing...im a DIY er with some good skills but not all the info...anyway... a friend recently purchased as house with steam heat... his well mclain furnace has an auto feed plumbed into it... but something seemed odd...The supply source for the feeder is the cold water supply from the hot water tank...in my house my feed to my furnace is manual but the supply comes from the hot water side of the hot water tank... which is correct...
supply the furnace with hot water to refill or
from the cold water side... thanks...
Racer

[jadnashua]

The boilers I've had installed in my home had the autofeed coming from the cold water supply. But, neither was a steam boiler...if you added really cold water to a hot boiler, it could be problematic, but it would depend on where it was injected. Need more experienced person with steam to tell for sure.

[racerc20]

Thanks jad...in my opinion a cold water shot going into the bottom of the furnace it seems to be piped into the return side of the system so it should be ok...i need to swap out some leaking valves for him so i wanted to know if i need to change the supply feed from his cold to hot... thanks...
you know the more that i think about it its possible that by the time the condensate returns to the furnace after shut down its probably cool not cold...

arrgh confused....

[johnjh2o1]

Feed it with cold water as it enters the boiler below the water level. On your system with out a auto feed if you should let the water level get very low and introduce cold water to a over heated cast iron boiler it could crack it. There would be less chance of that happening with hot water. Never feed water into a hot steam boiler when there is no water visible in the gauge glass.

John

[racerc20]

thank you all i will keep the feed then on the cold supply side...
thank you
Racer