Residential Boiler / Hot Water System -- Help Please

BigBlueHouse

I see that most of the posts on this forum are to and from people working in the industry. We're just home owners, but we're desperate. We cannot get our boiler system running and we need help!

We've been searching for someone in our area that knows how to work on old hot water systems for over 3 years. We've called everyone we could think of and then some, asked other old home owners around here, talked to every heating & plumbing contractor we could find and in the end we managed to locate only ONE guy who sounded like he knows what he's doing... but we only talked with him once and haven't been able to reach him since. Maybe he moved, maybe he retired... we don't know.

Here's the situation:

Last year a radiator supply pipe had to be moved. Our previous (general) contractor did this work. We never got straight answers on the details of how and what they did. They weren't familiar with hydronic heating systems, but we know the pipe did get moved and reconnected. Not sure if this has any bearing on our current problem, but it's the first time the system was tampered with so I thought I'd mention it.

A new thermostat was installed and a new electrical supply was run to the boiler. However, we couldn't get the boiler to turn on. It would kick on for a second and shut right back off. We thought maybe the thermostat wasn't hooked up properly or that the system was empty because it was drained from when the pipe was moved.

Prior to all of this the system had worked perfectly, no complaints.

When we couldn't get the boiler to turn on we made more phone calls, trying to find someone who could work on it but no luck.

In January of this year we had super cold temps and seven radiators burst (a huge heartbreak for us). Turns out there was water in the system the whole time. This illustrates our ignorance -- we didn't even know where the drain valves were, we just assumed the system was empty and didn't check. We eventually found them -- AFTER the damage was already done. We appear to be learning things about hot water heating the hard way.

We've spent the last few months removing radiators, replacing burst pipes and elbow joints and getting the system put back together. My husband looked at the thermostat and tightened the connections on the wires.

This week we replaced the last damaged pipe back, crossed our fingers, and started filling the system with water. We waited and waited. We could hear the water running into the pipes in the boiler room but none of the radiators were filling up. We weren't sure if the system needed to be closed (it was) or if it needed to be open at some point during filling to let air out. See, we just don't know.

Then the leaks started, dripping out from around a cutoff, the circulator pump, and a pressure gauge that is attached to the main supply line. The face plate of the pressure gauge filled with water and the needle never moved the whole time the system was filling.

We tried to turn the boiler on, to see if it would try to fire up at all and it never did. We adjusted the thermostat six ways from Sunday with no results.

Now the truth is that we really have NO clue what we are doing. We've just trying to use common sense and the little bit of info we've been able to learn online about hydronic heating and electric boilers. We need help.

Our boiler is old, how old I'm not sure. It was made by Precision Part Corporation. I have pictures if that helps. There is no water level or pressure gauge on the boiler itself. We don't know if the boiler has an internal limiter switch that prevents it from cutting on if the pressure or water level is too low. I can provide the specs listed on the faceplate if that helps in some way.

The circulator pump and the pressure reducing value are made by Bell and Gossett. We've never, ever heard the circulator pump run. There is an old, discarded pump of the same model in the boiler room. The one currently hooked up looks new but who knows??

The system used to be gravity fed, but there is no expansion tank attached to the rise in the attic anymore -- we're guessing it was converted to a closed system when the circulator pump was added. There is a big green tank mounted near the ceiling in the boiler room, it's connected to the main supply pipe coming out of the radiator. There are no gauges on the tank.

Like I said, we've just tried to piece together the little bit of information we've been lucky enough to run across in our research. We live in a fairly rural area and no one seems to know anything about these systems anymore, which is pretty surprising considering how many old homes there are in this area.

Our questions are: What do we do since we can't find anyone to work on this? Why won't our boiler turn on? We can replace the pressure gauge, but how full do we fill the system? What PSI should it be at? If we need a new boiler, how on earth are we going to get it installed? How do we tell if we need a new boiler? Why doesn't the circulator pump run?

Ugh... we're so frustrated right now. Obviously most of these questions really need to be answered by an experienced person who's examined everything, but that's not an option we have right now. But if there IS anyone in southwest Virginia or a nearby area, please contact us.

Meanwhile, does anyone have advice?? We would REALLY appreciate some help!