475 Inside the Boiler: Inspection, Failure Analysis, and Photography with Cheryl Heiser

A boiler failure can create pressure quickly: production is down, emotions are high, and the water treater may be the first person blamed. Cheryl Heiser of TGWT Clean Technologies Inc. joins Trace Blackmore, CWT, to walk through a more disciplined way to evaluate boiler issues by looking beyond chemistry alone.  

 

Why Boiler Failures Need a Broader Lens 

Cheryl brings field experience from the OEM boiler side, conventional water treatment, and purified tannin boiler treatment. Her perspective is rooted in the idea that no two boilers are the same. Design, operating conditions, fuel, history, circulation, steam separation, and customer practices all influence how a boiler behaves. 

She explains the premise of her AWT paper: helping water treaters avoid being immediately blamed when boiler tube failures occur. In her case study, two twin HRSG units were producing 100,000 pounds per hour of steam each, with superheaters operating at 600 PSI and 750 degrees Fahrenheit. The failures did not point to a simple water treatment explanation. Instead, the investigation involved steam drum internals, carryover, tube geometry, circulation concerns, and normal operating water level. 

 

What to Look for Inside the Boiler 

Cheryl emphasizes inspection discipline. Take photos, use a borescope when available, enter the boiler when safe and possible, and look for patterns in deposits, discoloration, distortion, turbulence, uneven circulation, and steam drum staining. She also explains why orientation matters. A photo that makes sense during the inspection may be difficult to interpret later unless the location and direction are clearly identified. 

Deposit analysis and metallurgical analysis can also help determine whether a failure is connected to deposits, material factors, overheating, combustion-side issues, or other mechanical contributors. The key is to understand the boiler as a system, not as a black box. 

 

Trust, Documentation, and Customer Communication 

When a boiler is down, the relationship with the customer matters as much as the technical investigation. Cheryl encourages water professionals to guide customers toward an investigative approach instead of a defensive reaction. That means asking better questions, understanding what relies on the steam, knowing the customer’s priorities, and reassuring them that the goal is to find the root cause. 

Trace closes the conversation by reinforcing the importance of documentation. Service reports protect the customer, the boiler, and the water treater. When recommendations are made, they need to be written down, repeated when necessary, and tied back to the operational risks they are meant to prevent. 

Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!  

 

Timestamps 

02:31 — Trace Blackmore shares guidance for Certified Water Technologists on staying ahead of CEU requirements, preparing through CWT Prep, using AWT technical training for verified CEUs, taking the first step toward certification, and creating accountability around professional goals 

08:01 — Trace introduces the episode’s boiler troubleshooting theme, explaining that no two boilers are the same because design, operating conditions, fuel, history, and system “personality” can all affect how problems show up 

08:38 — Words of Water with James McDonald 

10:13 — Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals 

12:04 — Interview with Cheryl Heiser, International Business Development Manager, Tannin Guys Network, TGWT: Trace welcomes Cheryl and references her recent AWT conference paper on boiler failures. 

12:38 — Cheryl shares her career path from field work with Babcock and Wilcox to conventional water treatment and purified tannin boiler treatment. 

13:43 — Cheryl explains how her boiler background led naturally into water treatment through her interest in fireside conditions, water-side chemistry, and boiler metallurgy. 

14:32 — Cheryl describes starting in boilers during an engineering internship in northern Alberta, where she worked around major boiler inspections, shutdowns, NDE inspectors, and boiler specialists. 

16:46 — Cheryl explains why she wrote and presented an AWT paper: to help water treaters understand boiler failures from a physical and mechanical perspective, not only from a water treatment perspective. 

17:38 — Cheryl outlines the premise of her paper: boiler tube failures may involve operating conditions, operator practices, design issues, circulation problems, overheating, or carryover, not only water chemistry. 

19:32 — Cheryl explains why distinguishing between water-cooled tubes and steam-cooled tubes matters when evaluating boiler operating conditions and failure locations. 

19:57 — Cheryl discusses superheater tube failures in the case study and explains how carryover from the steam drum contributed to deposits on the hottest part of the superheater. 

20:52 — Cheryl describes generating bank tube failures related to tube geometry, low slope, flow stalling, repeated wetting and drying, magnetite behavior, and thinning. 

22:17 — Cheryl explains how the normal operating water level in the steam drum made the generating bank issue worse because the top row of tubes was not fully flooded. 

23:06 — Cheryl shares how to begin a boiler failure investigation by asking detailed questions about operation, combustion, water treatment, controls, mechanical conditions, leaks, and the customer’s immediate priorities. 

24:40 — Cheryl emphasizes inspection tools and practices, including photos, borescopes, entering the boiler, when possible, deposit analysis, and metallurgical analysis 

27:16 — Cheryl explains how to keep inspection photos useful by labeling locations and capturing orientation, such as fire end, cold end, right side, left side, north end, or south end 

29:27 — Cheryl identifies specific inspection clues in a steam drum, including water line stains, turbulence, uneven circulation, leaking internals, deposits, and deposit patterns 

33:20 — Cheryl discusses how stress, downtime, and customer trust affect boiler failure investigations and why water treaters should guide an investigative approach rather than a reaction 

37:40 — Cheryl discusses her AWT committee involvement, including Women on Water and the Boiler Committee, and how those roles support networking, confidence-building, technical contribution, and industry learning 

41:40 — Cheryl recommends practical ways to learn boiler systems: trace lines, understand steam use, observe furnace viewports, note sight glass levels, and ask new questions during service visits 

43:02 — Cheryl recommends the Babcock and Wilcox Steam book as a major boiler reference and encourages water professionals to understand combustion-side factors that can affect water-side problems

49:17 — Trace closes the episode by reinforcing better troubleshooting through structured questions, careful documentation, service reports, and a willingness to work with customers on root cause rather than defaulting to blame 

 

Quotes 

“And if you know enough about your boiler, you can help the customer find other reasons for failures other than just saying, well, it must be the water chemistry, it must be the water treatment.” 

“You have to ask a lot of questions.” 

“That's really the basis of a good investigative process.” 

“First and foremost, always take lots of photos.”  

“The more you can inspect, the better, even if at first it doesn't seem like that area might be related to the failure or the issue.” 

“This is where you can help them keep an open mind, guide an investigative approach rather than a reaction.”  

“But just knowing your customer's system and their priorities is really key.”  

“I wish more people understood how critical steam boilers are in manufacturing, food production, power generation, heating, and so many other things.”  

“So, whenever you mention something to a customer, get in the habit of writing that down in the service report.” 

 

Connect with Cheryl Heiser 

Phone: [phone] 

Email: [email protected] 

Website: https://www.tgwt.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-heiser-02529373/  

 

Guest Resources Mentioned  

Gravitas: The 8 Strengths That Redefine Confidence by Lisa Sun  

She Thinks Like a Boss: Leadership: 9 Essential Skills for New Female Leaders in Business and the Workplace by Jemma Roedel  

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg  

STEAM/its generation and use (42nd Edition) 

Mechanical vs Chemical Reasons for Water Tube Boiler Failures’s Technical Paper 

Bobcock & Wilcox’s Finding the Root Cause of Boiler Tube Failures  

Bobcock & Wilcox’s The Importance of Boiler Water and Steam Chemistry

Chapter 14 - Boiler System Failures 

 

Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned 

AWT (Association of Water Technologies) 

Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses 

Submit a Show Idea 

The Rising Tide Mastermind

 

Words of Water with James McDonald  

Today’s definition is an expression that describes the terminal settling velocity of small, spherical particles falling through a fluid under laminar-flow conditions, based on the balance of gravitational, buoyant, and viscous drag forces. Can you guess the word or phrase?  

 

2026 Events for Water Professionals 

Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.