Steps to Bottom Blowing a Boiler

The main purpose of boiler bottom blowdown is to remove suspended solids from your system.  We reviewed the why's of bottom blowdown in  last week's blog .  Today we will go through the preferred method of performing the bottom blowdown.

Here are the steps:

1. Open the quick opening valve completely.
2. Open the slow opening valve slowly and hold it open for a period of approximately 5 seconds - then slowly close this valve.  Allow the water level in the boiler to come back up to the normal operating level and then repeat the blowdown procedure.  It may be necessary to perform the task a number of times if there are excessive suspended solids in the boiler water.
3. Close the quick opening valve.
4. Open the slow opening valve again to relieve the pressure between the two valves.
5. Close the slow opening valve.

Remember to never "pump" the quick acting valve as this can result in water hammer that can damage the piping or boiler.

Next week our blogs will deal with Surface Blowdown.