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luis1578 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:13 PM

I have no heat on the third floor of my house, I have an oil fired boiler(there is oil in tank) with hot water baseboards. I have checked the circulating up and that's working, the temp gauge is at 180 and the psi is under 20. I have no zone valves, it has a single thermostat. If anybody can help I would really appreciate it. Thank you in advance

mygirlsdad77 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:35 PM

Bleed registers at top floor. Also, how cold is it in your area. If upstairs pipes are located on outside wall, they may be frozen. You have heat to all other areas of house?

luis1578 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:42 PM

Thank you for the reply
No, I do not have any heat in the apartment at all and it is nt that cold. The furnace is running fine and there is hot water in the house.

hvac1000 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:46 PM

Lets see 3 floors at 8 ft per floor inc basement=24 hum and the problem is on the 3 rd floor hum. Interesting.

mygirlsdad77 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:49 PM

You have no heat in house. Boiler is up to 180. Sounds like a bad pump. Can you take a pic of pump and we will try to let you know how to test.

mygirlsdad77 · Jan 1, 2009, 06:51 PM

Also, you say pressure is under twenty. Sounds good, but what is the exact pressure reading? If zero or very low the water will not circulate,

hvac1000 · Jan 1, 2009, 07:45 PM

Velocity pressure could be a problem. Look to the boiler water pump impeller.

luis1578 · Jan 1, 2009, 08:09 PM

Don't have a working camera, but the pump does get hot and soounds like it's on. The pipes after the pump get pretty hot, but only to a certain point. Pressure is at 18 psi,

KC13 · Jan 1, 2009, 08:15 PM

Are you sure the pump is "pumping"? Try this: stop and re-start the pump while observing the gauge. Do you see any movement of the needle? Watch closely...

hvac1000 · Jan 1, 2009, 10:23 PM

A pump can be spinning and not pumping to specifications. While you now have 18 on the altitude scale that does not mean that the water is circulating. Remember this is not a gravity boiler with huge pipes by a circulating system that needs the velocity of a good pump to mover the water around especially in a three story.

luis1578 · Jan 2, 2009, 08:20 PM

Okay, I changed the pump and bled the system. The water is starting to heat up, how long before it makes it around?

KC13 · Jan 2, 2009, 08:41 PM

It could be an hour or more by the time you get all that water and piping heated up.

luis1578 · Jan 3, 2009, 11:33 AM

A full day has gone by and still nothing. Now I have no hot water at all. Can anybody help me out.

MarkwithaK · Jan 3, 2009, 12:04 PM

Chances are you will have to call in a service company.

luis1578 · Jan 9, 2009, 06:05 AM

I figured it out, It needed extra bleeders valves. Thanks for everybodies help

hvac1000 · Jan 9, 2009, 08:40 AM

You can never have enough bleeder valves. Glad you figured it out. Probably the original installer had to so a pressure bleed since there was not enough bleeders. All of your work for a few dollars worth of bleeders. Get the automatic ones they will save you the trouble bleeding the next time.

mygirlsdad77 · Jan 9, 2009, 04:05 PM

Glad yo got her going. Auto bleeders are great. Just check them from time to time to make sure they aren't leaking.

hvac1000 · Jan 9, 2009, 04:32 PM

On my auto bleeders in the attic space I used the special adapters and I/4 inch copper to send the leaks out the low roof vents. You just do not see many folks do that anymore.
mygirlsdad77 checkm out this link. This is about the only brand I used. Check at bottome of page short stop connector so you can change valve without draining boiler down. And then check out the 7A safe waste for the top of the valve. It allowes you to vent to the outside.

Automatic Air Valves For All Hot Water and Solar Heating Systems - Maid-O'-Mist® - Illinois

mygirlsdad77 · Jan 9, 2009, 05:17 PM

Thank you, I have never seen this type of auto bleeder. Makes sense. I will look more into them.

Ive seen the short stop type fitting in medical gas, they call it a demand check fitting. Also makes sense to use them in a boiler system for gauges, bleeders, etc, Ive thought about this before. Definitely would make changing these components much easier. Do you know if they make a 1/2 inch IP short stop. It would be great for replacing boiler drains. I like to set my boilers up to make future maintenance much easier. A lot of people ask why there are so many ball valves, boiler drains, guages and bleeders. But when it comes time to work on it in the future, it will save many hours of labor to fix any problem with the system. Now I can eliminate some of the ball valves by using short stop connectoins. This is great. (no need to be able to isolate bleeders and guages, and hopefully boiler drains)

And now I can say I learned something else today. Thanks again.

hvac1000 · Jan 9, 2009, 05:33 PM

See item 20 service check and they work.