Boilers, as to be expected, are temperamental things. On the one hand, they are constantly heating water and turning it into hot steam as a means of keeping buildings warm. On the other, all of that steam is pressurized. One false move, and you could be blasted with boiling water or boiling hot steam, and this could produce first-, second-, or third-degree burns. Unless you definitely know your way around a boiler, you should not be attempting boiler repair on your own. Here are a few other reasons why a boiler should only be repaired by a professional HVAC contractor.

Cooling down and turning off the boiler

If and when the heating plate inside a boiler is suspected to be the source of the heating problems, the boiler still has to be turned off and cooled all the way down before the contractor can open it up. This is a standard safety precaution for opening the boiler for any reason, since the contents inside are under so much pressure. This means that if you have a boiler in your home, and it goes awry in winter, you may need to find alternate lodgings for a day or two while the boiler is shut off and cools down to be repaired. Opening a hot or even lukewarm boiler or opening it while it is still turned on is akin to deactivating an active bomb—you should not do it.

Fixing the fan's engine

The fan inside many a boiler has an attached engine. It runs much like a multi-blade turbine, but at a much higher speed so that the heated air is quickly circulated into the building or house. When the fan seems to be the problem, the problem is less likely to be the fan itself than it is to be with the engine. Even if you know a thing or two about small-engine repair, you do not want to mess with a boiler's fan engine because it is one of the main components that helps keep your home warm. Repairing it incorrectly or installing a replacement engine incorrectly could turn your entire boiler into a pressurized bomb.

Checking, draining, and refilling the boiler's tank

Some boiler tanks cannot be over- or under-filled. Their water levels have to remain constant. When the water levels are not constant, this can cause irreparable damage to other components in the boiler. Only your repair technician knows exactly what kind of boiler you have, how to check it, how to drain it, and how to properly refill it after draining so that the amount of water in the boiler is exactly what it needs to be.

For help or more information, call a company such as Rickett Industrial Environmental Systems.