Air In the lines?

Allen_2

My parents keep on having their baseboard heat on the second floor(2 zones) go out. He has had the same contractor out 3 or 4 times in 2 months saying that it is air in the lines. Once he bleeds the air it runs fine for a few weeks and then shuts down.

Is their anything I can do short of telling him to find someone else(contractor is family friend). How is the air building up so quickly? Is their anything I can look for? Anything I can read to educate myself so I can ask the right questions.

Thanks for the help in advance

Adam

Tim Carlson

Air in baseboards

Is coming from one of two places. If you have a steel compression tank in the ceiling above the boiler, it can loose it's air, which will migrate up to the top floor rads. You will know this is it, because when the tank looses enough air, and you bleed it out from the rads, the system will overpressurise when heating and blow off the relief valve.

The other way air can enter a system is with fresh water. If there is a leak in the system, or in the boiler itself, and you have an automatic water feeder, the incoming fresh makeup water will bring in air that is released when heated.

A lot of failing boilers we replace show up with this system first.

Tim

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

ta finnegan

Get the air out!



To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

ta finnegan

Get the air out..

The best way I know to get the air out of just about any system and never deal with it again is to pump away from the boiler.

Shameless plug for Dan's book, "Pumping Away" read it and do it yourself or hire someone to do it.

The mechanics of it are straightforward and I've seen it work so often on systems just like the one you describe.

The air will be gone and everyone will be happy.

Do a whole new module, purge valve, diaphram tank, water feed, air separator, circulator and flow valve. It works.

To Learn More About This Contractor, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Contractor"

Allen_2

Thank you gentleman!