Boiler over flow is dry
Northern Alberta, Canada
I came home and the basement dweller (child) said the in-floor heat isn’t working. Dual zone.
The rest of the house is forced air furnace heated.
The in floor heat is a boiler system. New in 2019. Never been serviced. I didn’t know I had to. The box on the floor is empty. Had pink glycol in it previously.
I’m quasi handy.
Can I just fill it with glycol again? Can I just add water?
I think I need to bleed the air out of the lines. How do I do this? (This is the biggest question & step by step for me is best lol) What concentration of glycol should it take?
I shut the power off at the breaker box to the system. It also runs the hot water for the house through a hot water something or other …not a hot water tank…not sure what it’s called.
Help!!
Comments
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We'll need a much better more detailed description of what you have. Pictures will be a great help.
Miss Hall's School service mechanic, greenhouse manager, teacher, dog walker and designated driver
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coming right up….
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Weeeellll
My plan is to figure out what kinda glycol/concentration and fill that 22 litre holding tank thingy, turn the breaker back on and cross my fingers it purges and starts.
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It's not normal to consume fluid after the initial fill and purge. You have a leak somewhere. That leak needs to be found and fixed before you start having more serious issues.
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Long term fix would be to fix whatever is leaking. In a system like yours you should not have to fill it regularly. After this fill there could be some air in the system which can cause a few issues. Your boiler is flow dependent, and will not fire without detecting adequate flow at its internal flow switch, so if you get it filled back up and the issue continues you may need to purge out air. I don't see the usually tell tales signs of leaks. was your indirect heater still working?
For glycol use a propylene glycol mix that is specifically designed for heating systems. not rv antifreeze, or the like
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couldn’t it be evaporation?
I hate to say it…but I didn’t do any maintenance on it since it was new cause I didn’t know I needed to…I’m really good with home maintenance stuff normally0 -
Oops.
Well, in Alberta I do recommend that glycol — antifreeze — be in your system, though it's a bit of a nuisance. The objective of that box on the floor isn't an overflow — rather the contrary, the idea is to store extra water/glycol mix which it should (and, since it's empty, has!) feed into the system if there is a loss in the system, so as to maintain the pressure at the correct level.
Hopefully @hot_rod or one of our other hot water heat gurus will see this and be able to suggest the correct glycol and mix ratio to put in there — or you could send him a PM (just click on his name).
Now you may have gotten lucky and not have to actually purge the whole system. It's worth refilling that tank and making sure the pressure is correct (probably around 12 psig or so) and turning it on to see how it works before you get drastic about removing air…
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
No closed systems don't evaporate, or if they do it would take much longer than the life of the system. The install looks pretty clean to me overall. Dropping pressure in a closed system means there is a leak somewhere, without a doubt. Usually you will see crusty sweat joints or thread joints, leaks on a boiler system don't usually present themselves as some flowing leak, you may not even see water from them, just a slow leak can drop pressure relatively quickly. You at least have the correct setup to handle it imo, when you do a glycol mix in the filling unit, either mix the glycol with demineralized water, or buy the ready to use mixes (usually has RTU on it) this way you aren't just adding fresh well or city water to the system. The worst part generally about adding water is adding minerals, your filling unit allows you to avoid that part. You will add some air to the system still, but as long as it doesn't stop flow it will work its way out
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ok, thank you.
I have the breaker that runs the system shut off right now so there’s no pressure at all in the system.
I have bought a 50/50 mix that Axiom industries (manufacturer of the feeder) recommended.Will update in a bit…cross your fingers for me
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Filled it, flipped the breaker…it made some pretty crazy noises…oh, I can’t upload the videos
it seems to have stabilized now and holding at 18 psi
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Please share a photo of the system in question. Is there a garage attached to the system or is it all regularly inhabited space? Typically you'd be able to just refill the reservoir without purging, but the fact that the reservoir went empty says that there is a leak somewhere which should be identified prior to getting too carried away on the feeder.
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Usually 30% glycol is adequate.
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@smallnewt, welcome to Heating Help! I've merged your duplicate discussions into one here to prevent confusion.
Forum Moderator
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Ground Up, can you see the previous posts on this thread? I did submit pics of my boiler and lines.
I am happy to say that it worked!
Flipped on the breaker and some scary noises momentarily while the system pressured up. The feeder tank is holding at 18 psi and the floor is back up to temperature.
This set up is in a new build (2019). I have never had this set up serviced before, as in there has been no maintenance before today. I haven’t added glycol before either.
I will have the boiler serviced and inquire if there may be a leak somewhere. I’ll most definitely monitor more closely the level of the glycol now…thank you for the help everyone! It’s appreciated!
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oh!
the boiler system/in floor heat is only in the basement of my home.0 -
Yeah I'm sorry, I don't know what that was all about. This site has been really goofy the past week or so and does a bunch of strange things. When I responded to the thread, there was only 1 other response. I now see the other posts long before mine, haha
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6 gallons over 5 years is a tiny leak. Ideally it should be fixed but it also is why that feeder system is there. 6 gallons could have evaporated out of that tank over 5 years.
Is there any fluid at the relief valve? The expansion tank should have the precharge checked annually or so and it wouldn't be unusual for it to leak out in 5 years although unless it also failed to seat the pressure should have been at the relief valve set point more or less.
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update
All is good, glycol level is the same, pressure is holding at 18
Boiler service booked
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Check the expansion tank and the relief valve. If it was blowing off the relief valve when it was hot and the expansion tank is failed or lost its precharge, the pressure will go to 0 without the automatic feeder when the system cools even thought it is at 30 psig when it is hot. As long as the makeup take has fluid in it, it will keep adding fluid as the system cools to keep the pressure up. The fix is to fix the expansion tank if this is what is happening.
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