Air in my Condensate Hot Water system

Timco

You may be getting ketteling caused by low flow rate or sediment build-up in the boiler...like a waterheater gets.

A pic of your near-boiler piping always helps.

Tim

Tom Neumann

Keep getting air in my condensed hot water boiler system

I have a 10 year old Valliant 100 boiler with baseboard radiators (finned) on 1 inch copper pipes. There is a Taco air scoop and a new Amtrol expansion tank. The issue I have is that I keep getting air into the system that flows through the zones making popping noises in the pipes and radiators. Sometimes there is even a loud popping/banging noise from within the boiler itself.

I've had a professional out to flush the system and purge the air out but it came back 3 days later. I've also done this myself numerous times and it simply comes back within a few days.

I have no idea where the air is coming from since I see no visible water leaks. I realize there may be some air that gets into the system but this does not seem normal.

Any suggestions on what could be causing this and where it may be coming from or what to look for?
Thanks,
Tom

Tom Neumann

Air in boiler system

Hi Tim,

Thanks for your intest and response! I've attached 2 pictures of the near boiler piping. We are on well water so you may be right on the money with your initial thought of the sediment build up and I actually considered that myself. The prof. company I had out to purge the air and flush the system was surprised at how clean the water was that flowed from the system. They also connected directly to the boiler drain itself and ran some water from there and it was clean so they didn't feel that sediment buildup was an issue. However, when I purchased the home 3 years ago, I had a whole house water filter installed so I'm sure that is part of the reason that the current water is now clean but prior to that there most likely was a lot of rust and sediment build up occurring. What do you recommend in terms of servicing/cleaning the boiler? ie - if I call a company for this service, what would I specifically tell them I need done? I read somewhere about cleaning and descaling the boiler.

jimmac

Before you go nuts, check the water temperture.Make sure it is not building up to high.This will cause pinging in copper also. Have seen bad high limits do this many times!I at all possible as an added improvement remove the taco air scoop and install a spirovent or honeywell powervent there take out more air then the purger.