No heat in half of bottom floor

Ross_23

I haven't touched anything all winter. There are two coincidental events that I'm not sure are related, but for diagnostic purposes:

1) We had a very cold night (-2F) the night before
2) The thermostat flashed its "battery low" indicator and I replaced the batteries.

That's about it. The boiler, circulators, expansion tank, and controls are all less than 3 years old and have been working fine before.

Thanks for your response!

Ross_23

No heat on half of bottom floor

Hi everyone. I'm new and just at my wits end. Today's my anniversary, and it's just been ruined.

We have a Buderus gas boiler and hot water baseboard heat--two zones, one upstairs, one downstairs. Yesterday morning I awoke and went downstairs to find that half the bottom floor was literally freezing cold.

Half the downstairs loop was fine, but one section of baseboard was hot coming in but ice cold coming out. So I bled it using the bleeder valve on the return side, and that stretch of baseboard got warm, but the downstream ones weren't.

Well, there was some freezing (no bursting, thank God), but I remedied that and now all the bleeder valves have water coming out when I loosen them. But as I get further down the loop, the radiators just won't get hot. I bleed them and the water gets warm, and then the next one bleeds until tepid, but finally about 3 stretches of radiator down I've been bleeding it for an hour and the water's just not getting hot at all.

This was ALL WORKING FINE THE NIGHT BEFORE LAST. I'm just at a loss; I can't find a plumber to return my calls, and even if one did I can't imagine spending up to $500 to figure out what's wrong. Can anyone suggest anything I can try? I can post pics of the boiler, circulators, whatever....am I just being impatient on the bleed? Do I have to bleed the whole system? The pressure is at 12psi and the temp of the water is at 180...anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you all so much.

Mark Custis

What changed?

Yes it sounds like you are air bound, and need to get the air out of the system.

Yes you are being impaciant.

So find the change and fix it.

Then bleed, one at a time.

coffee can to five gallon bucket until you are done.

You are already in the dog house.

Go keep her warm or warm up the house.

Stephanie and I have been married for 25 years. She loves me, and I love her, but the girl just does not get removing air from a water system/

Ross_23

Re: What changed?

Thanks again, Mark. She's actually OK; fortunately we had no big plans for today. Still, I wanted to take her out for a nice dinner, or something.

So would you recommend working from the farthest valve back towards the supply, or going forward from the warm radiators to the cold ones?

And the only way to know it's done is when hot water starts bleeding out?

-Ross

Mark Custis

Then

I am not sure what advice to give. I am quallified to do heating. I do have Dr. Ruth's eamail. I do not type well in the dark.

Something has changed, with the heating system.

I guess that the "low batteries" caused the system to not heat durring the cold snap. Something froze but did not "burst". A soldered joint can expand and break when frozen and not leak water. It, (the broken joint) can suck air.

Air and water are very lazy, they rake the easy route. You could still have frozen sections of piping to the first floar. Keep warming the house.

Now always chang your smoke alarm, CO detector, and thermostat batteries on Holloween or your aniversery.

Ross_23

Re: Then

Appreciate the help, Mark. Finally, I have heat everywhere now. Coulda just been enough bleeding, or could have been something still iced up in the bathroom--I moved the heater closer to the floor about 3 hours ago.

And thanks, but I think Dr. Ruth would be best served staying as far away from both my and my wife's plumbing as possible...:-)