Some forms of maintenance on your boiler are not difficult. Water entering the boiler brings minerals and they stay in the vessel. This is called a sludge or mud, and will build up on the interior surfaces. Electric heating elements and sensing probes will be coated and lead to failure. A purge, or blow down of the vessel will counter the sludge accumulation. Reimers boiler designs offer a few ways to conduct a blowdown. The simplest is a manual valve the operator can open for a brief time to expel the water and sludge. Another method is to use a valve that is automatically activated when the boiler goes off duty, releasing water and sludge without operator involvement. Where does this water and sludge go? One place may be the drain pipe in the floor. This is suspect because no water is to be over 140 F entering the drain, per code. A tempering means with cooler water is suggested to comply. Reimers can provide that. A better way to conduct a blowdown and control the released hot water is to capture it in a closed tank. Hot water from the boiler enters the tank, loses heat to the mass of the tank, cools and is eventually allows to drain out when the temperature is under 140 F. The benefit of the tank is to offer a safer and code complaint device that does not depend on an operator to properly perform the blowdown operation. The tanks do not require a vent to be piped to the outside. Money saved!

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