Attached are a couple of pictures from a boiler repair that I needed to make in the middle of peach canning season. Peaches use the most steam for the canning process, we use steam to blanch the peaches which loosens the skin for peeling. One morning I was watching the boiler pressure while the cannery was running and it wasn't able to get above 60 pounds of pressure. The normal range is 85 - 100 pounds so this was not good. I figured out how to make it through the day but knew something needed to improve or I was going to have real problems.

Pictured are the old grills that had welded themselves shut (I was told that low pressure will cause this). There are probably 100 of these grills in the bottom of the boiler and there were 5 that were an issue. The shiny new grills are actually refurbished from boilers that have been taken out of commission. The new grills made a difference at the margin and I didn't have any more issues keeping the boiler pressure up.

The bigger issue is probably a buildup of calcium in the boiler tubes that is insulating the water from the heat of the burners. I will purchase a large amount of scale remover (it dissolves the calcium deposits) and will cycle it through for a day or two until all of the calcium has been removed from the tube walls.