Cold Baseboard Section

Steve Rockwell_2

I had an Ultra 155 installed a couple of weeks ago. As some of you may have read from my other posts, I am thrilled with it.

My contractor bled the system, which does include an amtrol air separator, by the bleed valves in many of the baseboard sections and radiators in the house. Overall, the temperature within the house is incredibly even, when it had been quite the opposite with our old system.

Wouldn't you know that the master bedroom is the one room that is cold! We have three sections of baseboard in this long rectangular room, which has three outside walls. The section at the far end of the room is always warm, as we're on constant circulation. The other two are cold. One of those is built in behind a window seat. The thoughtful carpenter did not build in an access port to bleed that section. I will cut one in to take care of it.

The section in question is about 18 fee long, and easy to get to. I has been bled, and only water comes out when I try to do it again. It also has a shutoff valve, which is open (screwdriver slot is parallel to the baseboard, as with all other sections in the house). It is stone cold. Any ideas? I am stumped.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Steve

Mark Eatherton1

no flow...

can you see from below how the convectors are piped? I ran into this once, and the board had been incorrectly tied to the same supply line for 20 years. THey'd NEVER had heat in the office. They couldn't thank me enough when I got done. They'll be building a new house soon, and guess who's going to do the heating system...

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends on the Wall!

ME

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

Ken_8

Mark nailed it

There's simply inadequate or no flow.

The buried unit may be the solution. Constant circulation is the right approach, but even that will appear air bound with excessive runs. You may want to consider power bleeding with a bypass arrangement, zone by zone or at the worst, re-evaluate the circulater head and GPM characteristics and perhaps up the pump sizing a tad.

Might work wonders.

Let us know what you find.

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

Steve Rockwell_2

You're right

about the lack of flow - otherwise it would have to be warm like the others. I think Ken is right in saying that the other unit is airbound, thus keeping this one from moving as well. The thing that confuses me is that the third unit, the one furthest from the boiler, is working fine. I cannot see the piping, as this is on the second floor, above the living room.

What is power bleeding, and can I do it myself?

By the way, it's a monoflo system with diverter tees.

D Logan Ireland Oil Co Inc

Locate the supply and return tees. Check their distance apart from each other.Check to see if the monoflow tee is on the return side of that radiator. It appears to be a pressure problem.

JM_2

I ran into a similar prob.

And it turned out to be that the baseboard with no heat was pitched slightly the wrong way. Water would come out when you bled it, but when I checked it with a level i saw it was pitched wrong way. Upon correctly leveling it alot of air came out and then it worked great.

Steve Rockwell_2

It Worked Fine Once

The one long section was working fine before we had our boiler replaced, which says to me an air problem vs. design problem.

I will cut an access hatch to the window seat section so I can bleed that tomorrow.

ScottMP

Steve

You say it is now constant circulation.

How is this being controled ?

Is each room a seperate zone.

If the room has its own non-electric themostatic valve, you find that the room heats with just the one radiator duirng mild days. This type of valve will trickle flow into the first section ( the farthest may have been first or, may have been reversed during the renovation ). It may not get hot untill the room demand really climbs.

Just a thought.

Scott

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

Ken_8

Monoflo tees?

There's the problem.

You cannot power bleed MF tees. Each piece of radiation needs to be bled independently. If a really long element is in the cabinet of the cold emitter it may need a second MF tee to induce flow.

It could be as simple as that.

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

Steve Rockwell_2

TRV's

We installed TRV's (ok - my contractor did - I just got in the way) on standing iron radiators in a couple of bathrooms, the garage, and the seldom used guest room, which is very well insulated and very much over-radiated.

The master br that we're talking about has no separate zoning or trv's on it.

Next step is to bleed the hidden baseboard section and see if that somehow helps. Who knows, though there are three sections in that room, and one is working just fine, perhaps the other two are somehow tied together. I can't think of any other reason.

Mark Eatherton1

Air bound...

Monoflow, or one pipe fitting systems are notorious for becoming air bound, and there is no way to power purge them. You have to go through and bleed each individual board. Also, as pointed out by previous poster, the bleed vent MUST be the high spot or you'll be whistlin' into the wind.

If your heating system has a new bladder type expansion tanjk, you can use the automatic float type air vents on the individual boards.

Let us know how you make out.

ME

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