1950s Boiler

PMulnj

Purchased an old house with an old boiler. Doing some research found similarities to the American Standard Severn Series 1954. Gas fed hot water system. Boiler needs to be serviced but not sure where to start. Boiler is located in the cellar, 1st floor which has the tstat has decent heat, but hot water is not making up to the second floor. Mainly radiators but do have baseboard on portion of 1st floor. Any advice out there?

EBEBRATT-Ed

Good old boiler.

1st step is to check the water pressure in the boiler. You should have about 15 psi when the boiler is cold. When the water is heated it may gain pressure to the low 20s but should not be over 25 psi.

The gauge on you boiler may be faulty. Best bet is to get a 0-30 psi gauge at a big box or hardware store. You can install it on a drain valve (flush some water out of the drain valve first) and use this to check against the boiler gauge. Once you know the pressure is ok bleed the radiators on the 2d floor to see if they are air bound.

You could have a water feeder or expansion tank issue. Report back what you find.

pecmsg

Where are you located, we might know someone.

Many many things could be wrong.

How experienced are you in plumbing and heating?

bburd

That boiler may be old enough to have a manual water feed valve rather than the automatic pressure reducing type feeder that became standard in the 1950s. I had the same model in my house, installed in 1947.

Is there a cylindrical steel expansion tank in the ceiling over the boiler?

Grallert

It's hard to tell but the pressure gauge looks bottomed out. There is a feed valve and backflow preventer both could be blocked up. Or the gate valve could be closed