Hot water baseboard heater problem

Josef

Looking for thoughts on what could be wrong with the baseboard heater in a condo unit I own.



Tenant is complaining that unit is cold, there seems to be some but not enough water flow to totally heat the unit. There is about 75' of pipe/fins. Control valves at either end with a bleeder at the head and the zone valve at the tail both inside the control valves.



I've verifed the zone valve works (Honeywell type), bled it, new thermostat. There is good water flow when I bleed it and when I opened the control valves with the zone valve apart. Still not enough heat coming from it.



I do now know much about the mechanicals of the system beyond that. The complex maintenance person has stated that there isn't any issues with the complex's end.

Is he missing something?  Am I missing something?

Any thoughts on what could be the issue?



Much appreciate your insights.

-Joe

Weezbo

yuppers ....

your "complex person " seems to have made up his mind everything great when in fact something aint happening ...Yah?

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are there ball valves or gates closest to the boiler on that zone ?

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have you manually opened the zone and let it run for an hour or so to see what the return temp is like ?



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i will hang with you for an hour or so.

Weezbo

steveray

bypass?

I've seen similar things twice once the complex replaced a commercial pump with a much smaller pump that didn't have anywhere near the head it need to do the complex . once the boiler was replaced and a smaller pump was used at the boiler because they eliminated the s/w hook-up and put in an indirect . the second time I simply closed the bypass and the new pump could then handle the load. apartments are tuff! Ask the complex guy if they did anything w/ the circ lately.

Josef

reply

Yeah, this is the conclusion I've come to. I need to make an inspection of the boiler room with the complex person. I'll get back to you on the valve type.



When I manually or via turning the thermo up open the zone valve, it does go from 'cold' to 'luke warm' so some water is getting through. Not enough to get the job done though. So what could cause that?

Is is a common problem to have debris clog up the system? Could debris have got lodged in the control valves? What could be the problem outside my unit?

Bad pump/low pressure, valves off. Anything else? Would air in the system be possible?



Thanks! Joe

Josef

reply

He said nothing was changed. Probably worth taking a look at with my own eyes though.

Weezbo

there are a number of things ...

if it is not hot by now.

i considered a rising stem or gate valve "Lost''

Lost in the sense that it is not fully open and sorta in pieces within the valve .



i considered Not a full pipe ,

remedy that by closing both valves against the boiler supply and return , and hooking a purge pump up to the return and a hose to a bucket with 3 gallons of water in it put one end of the suction side hose in the bucket under water and the hose from the supply under water and crank up the pump and back purge it . any air bubbles ...or violent burps of air mean air .

i considered impeller with severe type of battering that air produces ...

best plan have at least the price and availability on a new one or change the circ control over to the stand by circ or both.

i considered part of the zone valve itself having been MIA when last exchanged for a new one.



i considered a lost check ...

above the system circ ,

the remedy is almost identical to the impeller possibility.



... there are other things as well however we have to start someplace.



so how are we doing so far ? is the return pipe hot now?



Weezbo.

Josef

Solution

"What we've got here is a failure to communicate."



Solution to my problem: turning on the return main valve.



Lesson for the day: Don't listen to "the complex person" (or anyone) and make sure to verify with your own eyes.



Thanks all for your time and help.