hot water radiators

Mark H

I went to bleed my rads and nothing came out.
I left one completely open and after a period of time
water started to come out. What should i do now?

Jim Pompetti

purging

have someone slowly feed water to the systen , start at the lowest rads and bleed to the highest. leaving the system at 12 lbs when your finished.





FIGHT LIKE A GIRL! HELP FIND THE CURE FOR BREAST CANCER

Mark H

Can you explain what you mean, how do i do this?
I GUESS you can figure i am not a handy man

Steamhead (in transit)

Might be best

to call a pro. The automatic fill valve might be going bad. Try the Find a Professional page of this site.

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

Mike T., Swampeast MO

First find the fill pipe, e.g. the one leading from fresh water. It usually connects into or very near to the pipe leading to the expansion tank that's probably hanging in the ceiling by the boiler.

Then find the system fill gauge. It's sticking out the side of the boiler. Usually has two needles--one for temperature, one for pressure. The one for pressure should be marked "PSI".

Then look for any valve in the fill line. If you find just one normal looking valve, it's most likely closed. Open it slightly and fill until the pressure gauge reads 12 psi, then CLOSE the valve. If there's a strange looking device in the fill line with a thumb screw sticking out the top, that's an auto-fill valve. Usually it's set to keep the system filled to 12psi, but they sometimes go bad, but they usually won't go out of adjustment by themselves... Make certain that any normal looking valves on either side of the fill valve are open. Sometimes there's a "fast fill" pipe that bypasses the auto-fill--be careful when opening the "fast fill" as that exposes the system to full pressure from your domestic water system. Again, you may find no "auto fill valve". You may find one and if so, you may find a bypass around the valve for "fast fill". What you want to do is open the appropriate valves such that you file the system to 12psi, and then close. If you find ONLY an auto fill valve and no bypass, make certain that any valves normal valves before and after it are open. If they were closed, open and wait a while. The system should fill by itself to about 12psi. If it doesn't after a decent wait, turn the thumb knob on the auto-fill valve about 1/2 turn counter-clockwise. If the pressure still doesn't rise, you can repeat, but unless someone messed with the valve, it's likely defective.

After you have the system at 12 psi, bleed air from ALL of the radiators. Start at the lowest floor and work your way up. If the auto-fill valve is present and functioning, it should add water to replace the air you've removed and the system pressure should stay right at 12 psi. If it doesn't, add water again until you have 12 psi and continue bleeding until you've removed the air from ALL of the radiators AND the system is filled to 12 psi.