All Boilers Leak

At least that's what the dude said when he came to look at the leak.

Note the water stains around the boiler pad.  Compare with the picture in this post. Note the lack of water stains and that none of this has ever leaked as long as we've been in the house.

I'd gone down to check the pressure in to the system before burping the radiators for the winter and noticed some dripping around the air-valve to the right of the pump (in the old picture).  I also noticed that the pressure gauge read zero.  Interesting since I'd never seen that before; it always had at least 5 or 10 pounds in it.

So of course I started to fill it.

The more water I added, the faster the drip became.

Hence the call to the boiler company.

And the dud(e) shows up.

"They all leak," he says.  "And it's leaking because there's no pressure."

No dude.  There's no pressure because the darn thing is leaking!

So after he added a thousand gallons of water, the gauge still read zero, and there was a bigger puddle on the floor, there was a call to the boiler company to send someone who had a clue.

And he arrived the next day.  Which is why there's now a new, working pressure gauge.  And a working air-valve that's properly located.  And a new spiral valve where the old air-valve was.  And an extra shutoff valve that isolates the boiler so we don't have to drain the entire system next time.

And that first guy is not coming anywhere near this house again...