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My New Project / Hobby I fear

SBenzA
SBenzA Member Posts: 1
in THE MAIN WALL

Bought this house build int 1909. Hydronic heating into radiators on all three floors. System seems to work as it fires and heats the 1st two floors well, but third floor challenged and can't seem to bleed enough air out. Any thoughts as does not seem to have an air separator near the pressure tank like I see in other pictures. Appreciate any thoughts as we approach winter, I attached a few pictures of it all in case helpful.

IMG_0135.JPG IMG_0133.JPG IMG_0134.JPG IMG_0138.JPG IMG_0136.JPG IMG_0137.JPG IMG_0132.JPG

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,402

    This looks like gravity hot water heat? No pumps? But no steam type trim? Fair enough.

    In which case…

    The big greay horizontal tank is called a compression tank, and it should be half full (more or less) of water. There should NOT, repeat NOT be any other air separator on the system. Rather it should be piped so that any air wandering around in the system can be picked up by a pipe and make its way into that tank.

    The problem with heat on the third floor may simply be that there really isn't quite enough pressure in the system to get those radiators full — which they need to be to get circulation happening. Is there a pressure gauge somewhere handy? It looks sort of as though there is. What does it read? For three floors you need about 25 psig at the boiler to be sure you have enough.

    Gravity systems are also subject to problems from pipes which aren't quite pitched as they should be, but especially to valves which aren't all the way open.

    Can you send us more information?

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    GGross
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 14,239

    Can you take a clos up and large picture of those gauges? That system likely has to be fille manually with a valve and if no one is doing that occasionally it very likely doesn't have enough pressure to fill to the 3rd floor.

  • retiredguy
    retiredguy Member Posts: 1,062

    Go to the highest radiator in the system, which would be on the top floor, open the coin/key vent on the highest radiator to see if water escapes. If you only get air, allow it to vent out. If you get no water or first air and then it stops you do not have enough water pressure in the system. Raise the pressure one pound at a time until all the air is expelled and only water come out of that vent. Then vent all the rads in the system starting with the top floor and working down.

    PC7060SBenzA

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