# Water Leaking out of Copper Pipe on Oil Heat Furnace



## icandousa (Jul 23, 2016)

Hi all,

I've been having an on and off issue with my oil furnace for the last year or so. Every now and then water would slowly drip out of the copper pipe pointing down towards the ground (open on bottom). I'm guessing this is some sort of pressure release system? My furnace guy said it's normal if the heat is turned up and down a lot. At the time, the property owner did do this so I wrote it off as being normal.

However now, water is literally running out of the pipe. It fills a 5 gallon bucket in under an hour. I had to resort to turning off the entire system in fear of water being everywhere or the furnace becoming too pressurized.

What could cause this? How do I fix it? I have a lot of plumbing experience and know my way around pipes, but if I had to tell you what all the parts on a furnace are, I'd be lost. If someone has had a similar issue and knows what part to replace, that would be a great help! Thanks!


----------



## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Expansion tank might be full of water. If its a long steel tank, it needs drained. if its a bladder tank, it may need replaced. Could also be your auto water feed is leaking water into the boiler.


----------



## icandousa (Jul 23, 2016)

beenthere said:


> Expansion tank might be full of water. If its a long steel tank, it needs drained. if its a bladder tank, it may need replaced. Could also be your auto water feed is leaking water into the boiler.


Furnace guy said there's no water in the expansion tank (he knocked on it). I took his word for it but how can I be sure? The system is relatively new (under 5 years) and I believe the tank was installed even more recently. I guess replacing the tank would be an easy fix if that's the problem.

How do I verify a failing auto water feed? Where is that at?


----------



## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Expansion tank may be okay. Or it could also have a hardened bladder. Same effect as being full then.

Hard to check it, as some need to be removed from system to see if its full.

Auto water feed will be on a 1/2" pipe that connects to your boiler. 1 way to check it, is to leave boiler off. mark current pressure on pressure gauge, and then in an hour or 2 look at the gauge. If it went up, the auto feed is bleeding water into the boiler.


----------



## icandousa (Jul 23, 2016)

beenthere said:


> Expansion tank may be okay. Or it could also have a hardened bladder. Same effect as being full then.
> 
> Hard to check it, as some need to be removed from system to see if its full.
> 
> Auto water feed will be on a 1/2" pipe that connects to your boiler. 1 way to check it, is to leave boiler off. mark current pressure on pressure gauge, and then in an hour or 2 look at the gauge. If it went up, the auto feed is bleeding water into the boiler.


The boiler has been running on and off for heat. The furnace guy turned the cold water feed off and the hot water outlet off as well, so no hot water, but still have heat. Pressure drops to 0 when furnace isn't running. I'm assuming I'll need to turn these back on to do this test? Is the water feed an actual valve or some other type of unit? Outside of case or inside? Is this the pressure reducing valve? If so I noticed some water leaking out of the top of that a while ago but it has since stopped, pressure was running a little high but has now gone down to normal.


----------

