Arg air in lines still. Baseboard boiler issues.
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Arg air in lines still. Baseboard boiler issues.
Alrighty, so I originally had a plumber come to my house to replace a zone valve and fix a leak or two. He did a good job, but left with a ton of air in the lines and told me to just open a little spout occasionally and let the air out. 3 months later and the thing still makes a ton of noise when starting up. He said he couldn't get all the air out because one of the zone return valves was stuck open or closed...one of the two.
New Plumber comes today to replace said valve and repair a leak that plumber one had failed at repairing and then stiffed me on the call back. Plumber B seems a bit more knowledgable and at my request replaces the suspected brojken valve. he replaces it. It works fine. Arg, so anyhoo he uses a different fill method that stiff left a ton of air in the lines and it is loud at startup still. Can anyone recommend and good ways to get my stsem quiet again.
I have nor relief valves on my baseboards. Boiler is on bottom level of 2 story home. 1 zone downstairs and 2 zones upstairs.
Thanks for any help
Images for reference.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler2.jpg
New Plumber comes today to replace said valve and repair a leak that plumber one had failed at repairing and then stiffed me on the call back. Plumber B seems a bit more knowledgable and at my request replaces the suspected brojken valve. he replaces it. It works fine. Arg, so anyhoo he uses a different fill method that stiff left a ton of air in the lines and it is loud at startup still. Can anyone recommend and good ways to get my stsem quiet again.
I have nor relief valves on my baseboards. Boiler is on bottom level of 2 story home. 1 zone downstairs and 2 zones upstairs.
Thanks for any help
Images for reference.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler2.jpg
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I should also add that plumber B said to close the zone return valves, hook up a hose to the return spouts and let the air out that way. It seems to just drain water from the zone and then it has to refill. Hmm I'm a bit confused.
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Picture
In your first photo, what is the purpose of that black pipe(?) between the circulator & the boiler? I am suspecting it may be a by-pass & the gauge is a temperature gauge. I also cannot figure out the direction of flow. On the far side of the circulator body, there is an arrow molded into the cast iron. Does that arrow point up or down?
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The arrow is pointing down and yes it's a pressure/temp guage. Is there something fancy I can get to accumulate air for me somewhat quickly. Like a few days as opposed to a few months thanks
Also can you recommend a boiler treatment chemical? Mine hasn't been treated and my water comes out black THX
Also can you recommend a boiler treatment chemical? Mine hasn't been treated and my water comes out black THX
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Purging, etc.
As Who said, don't worry about the black water. Only very rarely do I add any kind of chemical treatment to the boiler.
The easiest place to put an automatic air vent would be on the supply riser where that spigot is. On to puging:
Close any shut off valves on the return side of the system (two red & one green handled ball valves).
Turn up the thermostat for the zone you wish to purge, making sure all others are turned off or all the way down.
Attach a hose (washing machine hose works well) to the spigot on the return for the zone you wish to purge.
Open the spigot & allow water to flow into buckets or the pit next to the boiler until you no longer get air.
Close that spigot, move the hose to another, & repeat the whole process for each zone.
This should remove the vast majority of the air.
The easiest place to put an automatic air vent would be on the supply riser where that spigot is. On to puging:
Close any shut off valves on the return side of the system (two red & one green handled ball valves).
Turn up the thermostat for the zone you wish to purge, making sure all others are turned off or all the way down.
Attach a hose (washing machine hose works well) to the spigot on the return for the zone you wish to purge.
Open the spigot & allow water to flow into buckets or the pit next to the boiler until you no longer get air.
Close that spigot, move the hose to another, & repeat the whole process for each zone.
This should remove the vast majority of the air.
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As Who said, don't worry about the black water. Only very rarely do I add any kind of chemical treatment to the boiler.
The easiest place to put an automatic air vent would be on the supply riser where that spigot is. On to puging:
Close any shut off valves on the return side of the system (two red & one green handled ball valves).
Turn up the thermostat for the zone you wish to purge, making sure all others are turned off or all the way down.
Attach a hose (washing machine hose works well) to the spigot on the return for the zone you wish to purge.
Open the spigot & allow water to flow into buckets or the pit next to the boiler until you no longer get air.
Close that spigot, move the hose to another, & repeat the whole process for each zone.
This should remove the vast majority of the air.
The easiest place to put an automatic air vent would be on the supply riser where that spigot is. On to puging:
Close any shut off valves on the return side of the system (two red & one green handled ball valves).
Turn up the thermostat for the zone you wish to purge, making sure all others are turned off or all the way down.
Attach a hose (washing machine hose works well) to the spigot on the return for the zone you wish to purge.
Open the spigot & allow water to flow into buckets or the pit next to the boiler until you no longer get air.
Close that spigot, move the hose to another, & repeat the whole process for each zone.
This should remove the vast majority of the air.
Great! I picked up a short hose and will give that a try soon. Thank you
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I think I may have found the reall underyling issue with my system and possibly confused myself even moreso. The one thing that is always neglected when the plumber comes over is the pool heater. When he is filling it up and all the valves are supposed to be open we never mess with the pool heater.
Pictures for reference.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler4.jpg
I was trying to purge the air as mentioned above, but everytime I turned the spigot off and back on air would come out. I was getting frustrated and just noticed there is a spigot on top of the pool heater. For fun I'll turn it on and see what happens. Air spit out of there for about 30 seconds and then i started getting some water. I think that big chamber was full of air, which when the pump is running was pushing a bunch of that air through the lines.
The weird thing is the valve on top of the pool heater is disconnected and manually closed, but when I was running the boiler for other zones that big chamber tube thing was getting hot. Is my valve jacked and should I be replacing it even though i never use this thing.
SO my future plan on my next break from work. Open all zone valves including the pool heater to get everything pressurized. Close all 4 return valves (3 zone and 1 pool heater) Then tuen each one on individually while keeping the others closed and do the hose into the bucket thiong searching for air. Is this a sound theory?
Also since that big pool heater chamber is heating up am I wasting a lot of heat dissipation on that thing? If thats the case...if i let everything cool down and then open one zone valve...the other zone valves should stay coolor will they be warm since the returns are all hooked together?
Thank you all sooo much!
Pictures for reference.
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler3.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey-wilson/boiler4.jpg
I was trying to purge the air as mentioned above, but everytime I turned the spigot off and back on air would come out. I was getting frustrated and just noticed there is a spigot on top of the pool heater. For fun I'll turn it on and see what happens. Air spit out of there for about 30 seconds and then i started getting some water. I think that big chamber was full of air, which when the pump is running was pushing a bunch of that air through the lines.
The weird thing is the valve on top of the pool heater is disconnected and manually closed, but when I was running the boiler for other zones that big chamber tube thing was getting hot. Is my valve jacked and should I be replacing it even though i never use this thing.
SO my future plan on my next break from work. Open all zone valves including the pool heater to get everything pressurized. Close all 4 return valves (3 zone and 1 pool heater) Then tuen each one on individually while keeping the others closed and do the hose into the bucket thiong searching for air. Is this a sound theory?
Also since that big pool heater chamber is heating up am I wasting a lot of heat dissipation on that thing? If thats the case...if i let everything cool down and then open one zone valve...the other zone valves should stay coolor will they be warm since the returns are all hooked together?
Thank you all sooo much!
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Hmmm this is all starting to make more sense. Last week out gas bill was higher than usual. I also started cleaning the pool last month and was runnin the pump a lot. I think I have been heating my pool and it is returning the cold ass pool water therefore taking more gas/time to heat things up. Crap what a waste of money. Thank god I haven't been running the pool year round. Does that sound reasonable. I'm debating If I should replace the valve or just just the supply pipe and cap it off. I have no intentions of ever using the pool heater.
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Sweet, so relieving all that pressure in the pool heater chamber really quieted down my lines when it starts up. I can barely hear anything now. AWESOME!
Really dumb question, but when the boiler almost hits it's peak temp should it sound like boiling water? Mine never has, but it does now. Boiler boiling water sound when it heats up...makes sense right?
Really dumb question, but when the boiler almost hits it's peak temp should it sound like boiling water? Mine never has, but it does now. Boiler boiling water sound when it heats up...makes sense right?
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Boiling sound, etc.
The boiling sound is usually caused by mineral deposits in the boiler. You can try draining some water from the very bottom of the boiler & hopefully you will carry out the deposits. Not likely but maybe.
If you have no intention of ever using the pool heater, I would disconnect it.
Congrats on your diligent work & success.
If you have no intention of ever using the pool heater, I would disconnect it.
Congrats on your diligent work & success.
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The boiler was drained and refilled about a week ago and I just noticed this sound today. Is there a drain on the very bottom of the boiler somewhere?
Last edited by scarywoody; 04-02-07 at 09:27 PM.
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Boiler Drain
There should be a drain somewhere near the bottom of the boiler. This being a gas fired boiler, the drain will not likely be at the very bottom of the boiler jacket but certainly less than 1/2 way up . I looked at your pictures again but was unable to see the drain. It may be on the back. You might try turning down the boiler temperature by 10-20º to see if this helps. That noise in not uncommon in dry base boilers.