Boiler rooms reward clarity: how many BTUs from the flame actually arrive in steam—and stay there to do useful work? For Boiler Tuesday, Trace Blackmore, CWT, treats boiler care as heat-transfer management across the full train, from feedwater and deaeration to distribution and condensate return, with dry steam as the operational benchmark.
Heat Transfer Is a Leadership MetricDry steam isn't a detail; it's throughput. Steam on its worst day carries ~1,150 BTUs while hot water on its best day carries ~180 BTUs. When carryover creates wet steam, production loses energy at the point of use. Treating "BTUs-in-steam" as a shared KPI aligns maintenance, operations, and finance around the same outcome: efficient work.
The Steam Train: Protect the Interfaces
Trace maps the sequence—pretreatment → feedwater/DA → boiler → steam lines → condensate return—and explains where heat transfer is taxed when fouling or poor practices creep in. Recover condensate BTUs, verify deaerator performance, keep tube interfaces clean, and protect dryness at end users. Each interface preserved is energy returned to work.
Field Perspectives & Safety
Concise greetings from global practitioners reinforce fundamentals and vigilance. Barry Higgins underscores soft, high-quality water for "fluffy steam." Ivan Morales contrasts OTSGs with conventional boilers and the implications for steam quality. Ben Frieders offers a memorable safety reminder: disciplined restarts and gasket integrity are non-negotiable in steam environments.
Boiler Tuesday is a call to manage heat-transfer efficiency, not just chemistry. Protect interfaces, speak in BTUs, and make dryness measurable where the work happens.
Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:20 — Welcome and IWW25 context; Boiler Tuesday focus (why: frame the professional lens for the week).
03:46 — "Heat transfer efficiency managers": defining the water treater's job (why: reframes role beyond chemistry)
08:13 — Technology parity; execution and knowledge as differentiators (why: invest in people and practice).
09:59 — The train: feedwater/DA, boiler, lines, condensate return (why: systems thinking prevents local optimization)
12:52 — Guest greetings begin: international and cross-industry viewpoints (why: broaden operating context).
14:04 — Barry Higgins: soft water for "fluffy steam" (why: pretreatment quality → steam quality).
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