The feed is a pressure reducing valve
I was recently bleeding the air out of my weil mclain pcg-4 boiler and realized that there is no pressure regulator on the supply line to the system. I know this sounds hard to believe but I think I know what it should look like and there for sure isn't one and the fill for the boiler is an automatic one which means it should have a regulator, shouldn't it? I know the automatic fill is working fine because when I bled the valves, I heard the fill valve open and saw the pressure drop for a second and go back up to 10psi. Has anyone ever heard of something like this or should I be worried? Is there a chance that the pressure regulator is somehow integrated into the circulator or something else? Everything appears to be working fine and the boiler was in the house when I bought it a few years ago so I thought nothing of it. If the boiler is working fine and doesn't appear to have one should I just leave it? My only other guess is that there is one somewhere else between the feed and boiler, outside of the boiler room but that would just be strange....any ideas about this would be appreciated.
The feed is a pressure reducing valve
Sure thing-sorry I should have posted these with my first post.
Picture #1 shows the feed going into the boiler-it's really tight so it's hard to see the pipe and the expansion tank is in the way so it's hard to see.
Picture #2 is just the top of the boiler and the zone valves.
Picture #3 shows the feed on the left and then a bypass valve that is closed and goes directly to the return part of the loop that comes from the baseboards.
Picture #4 is an overall shot...hopefully clear enough to get the big picture.
If there is a part you can't see and you want a closeup, let me know.
The brass fixture where your feed/ fill water attaches to the expansion tank is a Fill-Trol, which automatically fills the system to 12psi. You need a backflow preventer upstream of this unit with isolation valves on either side so you can service it without dropping the entire system. If your house is three stories you may require additional pressure so the fixed 12psi could be a problem. In that case, replace with a separate automatic fill valve or a combination fill/ backflow preventer such as a Watts 911 then adjust pressure. Don't forget the air charge in the tank must equal system pressure and that must be tested with the tank disconnected from the system. Nobody installs isolation valves on tanks it seems but they should.
pics helped. HTH
Keep the fire inside the fireplace.
That suggestion sounds great tigerman....I'd love to re-do things like that but I am just a homeowner-I am handy but for that kinda stuff I'd want to hire it out. The system works fine and the only issue is that the boiler is noisy-it gurgles when on and I believe I have purged any/all air out so it's something else. The pressure says 10lbs and I with 12lbs being normal, maybe it's related to that but I've read a lot about homeowners checking/charging the expansion tank so I am just going to leave it all alone. Thanks everyone for your input!