1 of 3 zones not heating

Christina66

Please bear with me as I have no idea what I’m doing, I lost my husband 3 years ago and this is one of many lessons I didn’t learn about to take care of our home. So I have a #2 fuel oil  fired furnace and 3 zones. The zone to my 2 bedrooms and bathroom is not heating up at all, the furnace kicks on when I turn up the thermostat but there’s no sounds as if water was even trying to enter the pipes. I don’t understand any of the lingo and don’t know the correct positioning of valve handles and such however I’m a good learner when the teachers have patience with my sometimes “slow to get it the 1st time “ learning ability. Every little step explained is what I need and pictures of the various valves and knobs, levers, etc to aid me would help immensely. I suffered a life threatening brain injury a couple years before my husband passed and it just takes me a little longer to understand things I know nothing about so please be patient if I ask a lot of questions to help clarify things. The baseboard heaters in each room only have 1 valve where the pipe comes up thru the floor, there’s nothing at the other end as far as another valve. It seems like a lot of work to do all the bleeding from the basement and I’d read that if the baseboards only have the one valve that it’s okay to bleed the air out from that valve in each room. Is this true or do I have to do it from the basement and furnace, etc. if your answer is that I have to do it from the basement would someone be kind enough to baby step me thru the process? Please and thank you. 

neilc

well you said pictures,
let's start there,

post a picture of one of your problem radiators, the valve end, and the other end,
and then of the boiler, a shot or 2, floor to ceiling so we see pipes, and controls on the boiler,

Christina66

Christina66

Christina66

I know you said 1 or 2 pictures however I wanted to add the close ups as well. This setup also included lines to an outdoor wood boiler that we used to have but it crapped the bed a few years ago but there is still water lines in place to a separate garage which still has running water. Also if you could explain to me why the zone indicator lights go on and off at various times. I thought they were to light up red to indicate that there’s a problem in that zone, but one or more will light up at various times when I know that the heat is working in those areas. 

Christina66

bburd

The zone indicator lights show operation of each zone. The yellow light indicates a call for heat, and the red light indicates that heating is on in that zone. 

Rich_49

bburd said:

The zone indicator lights show operation of each zone. The yellow light indicates a call for heat, and the red light indicates that heating is on in that zone. 

Not that the heating is on , just that it SHOULD be on . It sounds very much like there is a problem with your circulator/s and posss=ibly air in the system . Where are you located ?

Christina66

 Way upstate New York 

Christina66

Can I bleed the air out of the baseboard heaters if there isn’t a release valve on the opposite end of where the water in valve is? I posted the pictures earlier of what it looks like 

leonz

Hello Christina66,

Ah, Watertown, Fort Drum, Massena or Governour?, or are you close enough to Quebec that they hurl French insults and empty maple syrup jugs over and across the border crossing station roof??

It would be simpler, and better for you if you simply turned the heat up for the entire home to heat all the water in all the baseboards to drive the air out of all the baseboards in all the zones as it is simpler than crawling around on your knees for 2 hours.

Once the water starts to get hot in the baseboards it will not take long for the entire home to get warm and then you can turn the thermostat back down.

Christina66

I appreciate your concern for the well-being of my knees Sir but I assure you they can handle it much more than wasting the costly fuel it will take to eventually purge the air out of the lines and in the event that it’s not air that’s causing the problem then I’ve thrown that money away where it could of been spent on something more valuable to me than giving it to the oil companies that are fleecing the country and it’s people. Forgive me if I seem ungrateful for your suggestion but I need advice that’s more economical . Hell I might like to use that money to buy some maple syrup from my Canadian neighbors and maybe invest some in a great pair of knee pads. Anyone else have any advice or can someone please review the pictures I posted and answer the questions I asked, because winter is here where I live and I have no heat in my bedrooms and bathroom, please and thank you very much. 

leonz

Miss, in less than 3 hours you will have heat by doing what I suggested.

Christina66

in 3 hours I’ll be out of fuel. 

leonz

In your 3rd picture you have 2 brass colored automatic air eliminators,
one on the air scoop which is on top of the grey colored watts pressure
tank and the other one right below the dryer exhaust tubing in the picture.

If you can reach them both make sure the caps on the air eliminators are
loose as this allows trapped air to escape through the air eliminator.

If you can tolerate the home being colder for a while you can set the thermostat
to 62 and then starting bleeding the radiators. If you have thick bath towels you can
roll them up to make a thick wide knee pad.

Do you have a vent key to bleed the baseboard radiators??

neilc

I/we like lots of pictures,
looking at the pressure temperature gage,
15 psi, at 200*, you might be a little low on pressure,
and you need pressure to reach the top floors,
12-15 would get you 2 floors up,
how many floors are we talking?

try this,
and I'm assuming the rad pic is from the top floor, bedrooms and bath, correct?

turn off the boiler and circulators,
there should be a service switch(light switch) on the boiler, or with the control panel on the wall, or at the top of the basement stair(?),
make sure the circulators turn off, or turn down their thermostats so circs are off,

go to that top radiator with the air vent, open the vent for a quick second, do you get air or water?
if you have water, and it streams a bit, you have adequate pressure**,
if you get air, is it pushing out at you, or sucking in?

if the air pushes out at you, bleed until you get water, or the air stops pushing,
if air sucks in then you have a water pressure issue at the boiler,

now do the same thing with the boiler turned back on, and the circulators running(turn up all the stats)
same thing at the vent,
water?
air out at you?
or air sucking in?

with the boiler on, and all circulators running,
you should see a LED light on the end of the motor, green I think, It may blink, red or amber blinking usually means problems/air,
and why is that low one falling apart?
that capacitor should be tucked into a cover where it and you are safe,

I don't think I see your water makeup feed valve that feeds water to the boiler, or your system,
maybe it's out of sight heading to the wood boiler?
was it orphaned?
do you have a water line attached to feed water to this existing boiler system ?
the small 1/2 line connecting low between the circulators manifold?
follow it back, is there a valve closed there? is there a pressure reducing valve? picture?
if just a valve, don't open it without keeping an eye on the boiler pressure,

but air vent test upstairs before anything else,

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Christina66

Your second picture down shows a hot water air vent on one of the baseboards. I can't tell from the picture what you need to open it to bleed the radiation. Some are slotted for a regular screwdriver. Some have a square stem, and you use a "skate key."


Your water pressure shown in the last picture is 15psi. This is perfect for a one- or two-story house. This pressure will vary slightly depending on the boiler water temperature. It may drop to around 12psi with a cold boiler and as high as 24ish when everything is hot.

The boiler is up to temperature and the pressure looks good so if you don't get heat, it could be air in the system or maybe one of the circulating pumps(s) is not running. Those would be the two most common things. As far as the ball type shut off valves you have when the handle (the valve handles are 1/4 turn) is parallel with the pipe the valve is open. When it crosses the pipe, they are closed.

Check to see which circulators (looks like you have 5 of them) have hot pipes on both sides of them (don't burn your hands)

Hope some of this helps.