hot water heating water level question

heatseeker101

Good morning everyone

I'm helping a friend with his hot water heating system.I had to solder some open connections to prepare for the heating season, which means there's a lot of air in the lines to be purged out before the house is fully heated.

The heating system is a gas boiler heating a two zone hot water system with the circulator pumps controlled by a taco zone switching relay panel.

what bothers me is that when bleeding the air out of the zones, there was very little water coming out of the hose. i suspect that there's not enough water in the system because there's no heat on the second floor. could it be that there's no heat on the second floor because there's not enough water in the second floor zone to heat the second floor?

If this is the case then I had to check the pressure regulator valve to see if it's defective. I've been manually adding more water to the boiler from the pressure regulator valve, but how can I tell if I added enough water. I don't want to overfill the system.

Big Ed_4

There will be a pressure gauge along with a temperature gauge .. 12# should be enough . On most pressure reducing valve , there is a top screw with locking net . Screw inward more pressure . They go bad , any doubts replace ...

EBEBRATT-Ed

The prv can go bad as @Big Ed_4 mentioned. They can get clogged with sediment and rust. Probably cheaper to replace it rather than repair it. 12-15 psi with a cold boiler is normal for up to a two-story house.

hot_rod

And boiler gauges sometimes lie

Add a good gauge or get a fast fill valve that includes a gauge😉