Hello from Massachusetts!

[Lopez Mike]

Gee, Ron. If there is enough grunge in your water to make the check valves stick, think what the inside of your boiler must look like!! I know. Blowdowns.

Jabbing at you aside, I have had a glass fracture from old age on an autoclave boiler. Electrically heated and using tap water makeup. Amazing buildup of solids needing semiannual cleaning. The check balls really did keep the loose steam under control enough that I could reach into the boiling white mess with the gauntlet that they used to handle the autoclave trays and shut things off.

The fun thing was that I had just alarmed the hell out of the student aids with overblown locomotive boiler explosion stories. When I emerged from the cloud they all gasped. The glass had blown little slivers all though the front of my T-shirt. No real damage but a lot of bloody spots. They were sure I had been boiled alive.

I still don't have a plastic tube explosion shield around my sight glass. It's on the list.