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dggump · Oct 28, 2012, 08:19 AM

Looking for advice on how to troubleshoot a heat issue. I have a 2 story home and cannot get heat to the 2nd story anymore. I opened the pipe on a 1st floor run to swap a panel radiator in the kitchen for one of the slant fins. After closing and refilling the system I cannot get hot water to flow through the 2nd story baseboards any longer. I have read many posts on this site and others and have tried some common suggestions such as purging the water in bucket near the boiler to rid any air etc. Investigation shows no bleeder valves on any baseboards anywhere in the house to help me remove additional air if that is the issue. The kitchen run and an additional 1st floor run work fine but 3 upstairs ones don't. My boiler setup is different then most I have seen on the internet. Which is the supply and return water? Typically I would assume the return to be near the circulator which feeds into the bottom of the boiler. But... feeling the pipes with my hands the ones closest to the draincock valve are actually hotter to touch then the ones above leaving the top of the furnace. Only additional thing I tried is slowly play with the pressure reducer giving it 1 turn clockwise to bring the pressure gauge from 10 up to about 16 then stopped. I will try to attach a link here to a photo service. Thanks

dggump

dggump · Oct 28, 2012, 08:27 AM

Hope this link works

dggump

http://s1324.beta.photobucket.com/user/dggump/library/heat%20issue

mygirlsdad77 · Oct 28, 2012, 09:15 AM

If your pressure is at 16 when the boiler is cold, that part should be good to go. It sure sounds like you have air in the upstairs portion. If there are absolutely no bleeders on the upstairs radiators, this could be a bit tricky to fix. I personally would drain the system down and add bleeders on every radiator on the return drop. However, if you have the correct isolation valves at the boiler, and boiler correctly placed boiler drains on the supply and return, you could purge the system with home water pressure to force the air out. This takes a certain amount of time and expertise to accomplish. One other thing to try is to up the pressure on the pressure reducing valve to 20 (no more than that) This may solve the problem, but if it doesn't, put it back down between 12 and 16 psi.

mygirlsdad77 · Oct 28, 2012, 09:20 AM

Great pics of the boiler. Can you post a couple of the registers with the covers off so I can see if you have any bleeders?

dggump · Oct 28, 2012, 12:23 PM

It may be helpful to know there are no radiators except for the new one I just put in the kitchen. The rest is baseboard throughout the house. Not one of the baseboards has a bleeder on it. I took off the covers and looked. It is all slant fin. After looking at the pics is it certain which pipe is the supply and the return to the boiler? This has me baffled. I will see about getting some more pics of the baseboard later. Working on cabinets right now. Thanks

mygirlsdad77 · Oct 29, 2012, 03:44 PM

From the pics, the pipe going into the bottom of the boiler (the one with the pump) should definitely be the return. The one coming off the top should be the supply. There should be a directional arrow somewhere on the B&G (Bell and Gosset) pump housing to show direction of flow. It should be toward the boiler. There may be a chance the pump was installed backwards. Supply is always off the top and return in the bottom side on those style of boilers. And like I said, without bleeders on the baseboards, it can be tricky to get the air pockets out. Good luck and please let me know how things work out.