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Baseboard bleeding question

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Nbourgoin33
Nbourgoin33 Member Posts: 1
in Oil Heating
I just had a technician come out to my house to fix my boiler because of it not firing. In talks with him he asked if I have ever bled my baseboards, as being a first-time home owner I told him no. He told me how to do it everything was going well until I went into my son's room and when I went to go bleed the air out of it. I realized but there was no air or water coming out. Also look like there was water markings on the floor. Any explanations on how and why that happened and a way to fix it. Thank you

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  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,061
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    What pressure (PSI) shows on the boiler?
    Is the bed room on the second floor?
  • STEVEusaPA
    STEVEusaPA Member Posts: 6,506
    edited March 2021
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    I think he forgot to tell you, or you failed, to keep the pressure up. Would've been easier for him to just show you and do it with you while he was there.
    steve
  • HomerJSmith
    HomerJSmith Member Posts: 2,441
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    Is there valves for that zone that are shut off? Does that baseboard zone get warm?
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,834
    edited March 2021
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    Air vents on baseboard radiators. I'm thinking they are Cast Iron Baseboard and not the Copper tube with Aluminum fin elements type. Then you would need to purge air from each.

    In order to get water to go up, there needs to be water pressure below it. For every 28" of water above a pressure gauge, there will be 1 PSI on the gauge. So a pressure reading of 12 PSI on a gauge means that you can push the water up a pipe (or a water tower) 28 feet above the gauge. (there are 12 inches in a foot so there are 28 feet with 12 pounds of pressure.) Any higher than that and the water will no go up anymore.

    So as you were letting air out of the other radiators, you were also letting out the pressure. As the pressure on the gauge dropped to say 6 PSI, the water will only go up 14 feet in the pipes. If the radiator you are trying to purge air from is 16 feet above the pressure gauge, the system does not have enough water in it to fill that radiator.

    It can be complicated to explain but just know that you cant fill a 5-gallon pail with 3 gallons of water. To get the water to the top of the 5-gallon pail, you need to add more water. Adding more water to the heating system will force the air out of that radiator.

    Hope this explanation helps.

    Yours truly,
    Mr.Ed
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics

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