Air in hot water baseboard - help!

heydobbs · 12-07-2006, 09:46 PM

My furnace is in the center of my condo and it seems like half of my condo gets heat, but the other half does not. I suspect I have air trapped in my pipes. Plus, I can always hear the water flowing through my hot water baseboard pipes.

I do not have access to the high points of my pipes because I live in a condo building, so I can't look there for pressure reliefs.

This is what I can see in my furnace in my condo:
City water comes in a splits 1. into furnace, and 2. into hot water heater.
Then, there are two pipes coming out of my furnace.
One of the pipes had a pressure bell then a black knob valve and then goes into the wall.
The other pipe comes out of the furnace and splits in two: 1. to a reducing valve then a backflow preventor and then through a red knob valve. 2. the other branch goes to a red knob spigot and then through the wall.

How can I purge the air with the setup I've got?

Thanks!

mdshunk · 12-07-2006, 10:14 PM

There should be a little fitting at one end or the other of each convector in your condo to bleed the suspected air out. This fitting may be one of a variety of styles.

heydobbs · 12-07-2006, 11:56 PM

It's a constant loop, so there is no relief valve at the end of each convector - any other ideas?

Can I just open the red knob spigot and keep a constant supply and let it all just flush itself out?

747 · 12-08-2006, 12:08 AM

Mine has three. The first two are located on the copper pipes after the zone a flow valves. Meaning i have two zone a flow valves if you follow those copper pipes on the top of both is a silver screw. Now the other one i never new of until about a month ago when i was in my crawl space. Down there on one of the copper pipes for the heat is a silver screw. Now your system should have one if its a one zone system somewhere you just have to follow the copper pipes until you find the silver screw. If not maybe you don't have one then you will have to call a plumber have one installed. Where i live all plumbers are heating also.

747 · 12-08-2006, 12:12 AM

Open what and keep a constant supply. You mean the water going to the furnance that should always be open. Or at least mine is. This is the way the boiler gets additional water if necessary. It ends at another red valve which is located above the air bladder that is also open. Can you take a pic of your hotwater boiler?

majakdragon · 12-08-2006, 06:42 AM

Most all of the baseboard units I have installed have a bleeder valve on each baseboard. Looks like a flathead screwdriver slot and you open it to bleed the air. Otherwise, you need to go to the end of the line to bleed the system.

mdshunk · 12-08-2006, 06:08 PM

This might be beyond what I DIY might want to do, but I have to do this sometimes on difficult systems.... I flip the "fast fill" lever on the pressure reducing valve to double or triple the system pressure and then bleed the lines. When that is accomplished, I close the fast fill lever on the PRV and drain water from the boiler drain into a bucket to get the system pressure back to normal. If you screw this up, you stand a good chance of a catastrophe. I pass this along in the event that you are qualified to do as I sometimes do.