Baseboard Radiator Help

applefritter

Hello I’m having some troubles with my baseboard radiator heating. The temperature inside the house is very inconsistent, for example the temp yesterday was 18 degrees outside at this same time of day and I was able to raise the heat on the first floor to 69 degrees which was perfect. But today there’s no wind at all, it’s the same exact temp outside at 18 degrees but its 10 degrees colder inside. We’ve gone through each radiator, cleaned between all the fins and straightened them all. A few days ago we flushed all the air out of the lines without any issues and were able to get a lot of air out. The boiler is reading 170 degrees while it’s running.

We have 5 zone valves and only 4 thermostats. There used to be a thermostat in the family room, it may have been redundant as it was only 9 ft away from another one in the living room with no walls between them. The radiators in the family room with the missing thermostat can be drastically different temps, one might be warm and another won’t have much going on. 3 of the zone valves aren’t operating but they’re seemingly stuck in the on position. There’s no resistance when you move the lever, water is definitely moving through them. And the pipes leaving all 5 zone valves are hot. I’ve felt the water coming out of all of the first floor radiators, none of them are actually hot and some are barely warm. We have elbow fittings going in and out of each radiator as well, and I don’t currently have a reliable multimeter to test the wiring but I may just go ahead and get a replacement. Any help is greatly appreciated thank you!

yellowdog

Purge out more air by the sounds of it. Or you may have a bad circulator.

applefritter

Thanks for the response. We ran it for about 5 mins each line, it is a big house would you recommend running it longer? It seemed like there wasn't much air coming out anymore after the first minute. And the pressure was really good would that indicate that the circulator pump is running well still?

mattmia2

What pressure is the system at hot and cold? When you flush new water in that will have air dissolved in it which will come out when it is heated. Does the system have some sort of automatic air elimination or air management? Does it have a diaphragm expansion tank or a compression expansion tank?

applefritter

Appreciate the response, right now while hot it's reading about 50 PSI. I'm not sure about cold but if it's necessary I can turn it off and check in an hour or so. Looks like we have a diaphragm expansion tank, we do have an air eliminator vent, and our circulator pump is a Bell & Gossett NRF-25 which does hum quite a bit

Jamie Hall

50 psig is WAY too high! There should be a pressure relief valve on the boiler which should have opened long since. I hope the gauge is wrong… 15 cold, 20 hot is ample.

If you do have an expansion tank, it needs to be looked at. It may not be shot, but it's certainly not happy.

Something is very wrong there…

As to purging air, that needs to be done with a full flow — usually house pressure on one end of a line going to an open drain on the other, zone by zone, with the rest of the circulation and boiler valved off — and run it until you get no air at all.

applefritter

Thanks for the response, I had read it was high but I wasn't sure myself. The pressure relief valve should be releasing automatically correct? Should I try to release some after the boiler has cooled down? That valve sounds like it need to be replaced at the very least. The line going to the expansion tank is severely corroded and definitely needs repairing also. Too much PSI can cause heating issues like this? Or its more of a safety/longevity concern for the boiler?

mattmia2

The pressure relief valve being clogged can cause the boiler to explode if something goes wrong with the controls but the first thing to do would be to get a gauge that screws on to a hose fitting and connect that to one of the drains and see what pressure that reads. It is very easy for those gauges to read extremely incorrectly if the case gets bent.

applefritter

Appreciate it will do, I shut it off for an hour to let it cool down and its still the same PSI. Any harm in trying to open the pressure release valve while its cold? Or is it not common for them to be physically stuck in place?

Grallert

If you open the relief valve be prepared to replace it. It's very common for those to fail to reseat. You could open a boiler drain a bit and see if the pressure drops at all. Don't drain the boiler just draw off some water to see if there is a reaction at the gauge.

applefritter

Ah ok very good to know thank you

pecmsg

SHUT IT DOWN!

Call your service provider.

Grallert

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1826706#Comment_1826706

or this!

mattmia2

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1826692#Comment_1826692

or the second thing. the first thing would be to shut it down until you can figure out if the problem is with the gauge or the system.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Shut the boiler down.

You probably just have a bad gauge. Open a drain valve on the system just to see if water comes out and the valve works. Pick a valve with a garden hose thread. If the valve then leaks by as they sometimes do you can put a hose cap on it available at the big box or the hardware store.

Also, they make Gauges with a Garden hose adapter on it. Pick one up at the big box or hardware store and put it on the drain valve to check against the existing gauge.

Normal pressure with a cold boiler is 12-15 psi enough for a two story house. When hot and the water expands you may get 20 psi or so.

applefritter

Appreciate the responses thank you. I drained some water out and no difference with the PSI. But I was able to source a pressure gauge and tossed it on and cold its reading less than 20 PSI thankfully, looks like its probably a faulty gauge on the boiler. I'll find out soon here what it is when hot

applefritter

So it's reading about 21-22 PSI now while hot

Jamie Hall

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1826736#Comment_1826736

You're good to go. Nice to know! Now you can work on getting more air out — and check and see if the circulators are, in fact, running when you want them to.

applefritter

Awesome thank you. It looks like we only have 1 circulator and the house is about 3,000 sqft, is it possible that we need multiple?

applefritter

In case anyone was curious about this one it was definitely the circulator pump!