Frustrated

S Pynes

I am not a professional but have enjoyed the site. I have a water system with a fairly old boiler - American Radiator Co. 30LBs No 1 Ideal Redflash Boiler.

Last Winter the radiator in my children's room stopped working. I had to call a few people even to find someone who would attempt to fix it. I am not sure if the person I called is an expert or not. He disconnected the radiator and successfully fixed it. (other than spraying rusty water all over the curtains, bed linens and rug) We were happy that night that my children had heat. However, the next morning we noticed that the radiant floor system in our bathroom had stopped working. We called the repair person again and he somehow applied pressure into the system. We think that this created a leak in one of the main lines in our floor. (Floor boards were buckling and it was creating a big mess.) At that point he came back, tore up the floor and fixed the leak. After the last fix, I have half of the radiators that are too hot all of the time and half of them that barely warm up. (Including the one in my children's room that started this whole mess.)

The patch where he took out the existing pipe was fairly hefty, and he replaced it with a plastic tube which is much smaller - could that have something to do with my problem?

I am in dispute with the repair person and need to decide whether having him come back to finish the job is the right thing or not. Does it sound like he took me through the correct set of steps to solve my problem and that I am just suffering from an extremely old system, or should I find someone new who is more qualified to work on this type of system? (By the way I am in the Western US - Salt Lake City so if you know someone qualified out this way, I would be very appreciative.)

Thanks,

Scott P
Salt Lake City, UT

Steamhead

That sounds like an old gravity system

and the pipe sizes have a lot to do with the way the water circulates.

Gravity systems used large pipes so there would be little resistance to the flow of water. This allowed the hotter water to rise and the cooler water to drop, which moved the heat from the boiler to the radiators. No pump was used.

Even if the system now uses a pump, the pipe sizes must still be kept the same or the system will not heat properly, as is happening in your case. That plastic patch is too small. It should be replaced with copper or steel, the same size as the original pipe.

BTW, that Redflash is not the most efficient boiler, and there's a good chance it's oversized. You can reduce your fuel consumption by replacing it.

Try the Find a Contractor page of this site to locate someone near you who can fix your system.

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tim smith1

flow, leak problems

Agree with steamhead, need correct size pipe where pipe section was cut out. Regarding the leak, if he applied more pressure and a leak started in the old pipe, that pipe was corroded out or crack in fitting. Unless he physically took a saw or hammer to the spot where it leaked, it was just wear. I would presume you have a pressure relief valve on boiler to prevent too high of pressure to piping.

Mad Dog

Calling Gary Bigugh....he'



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Mad Dog

Calling Gary Bigugh....he's in salt lake

and can put you in the right direction mad dog