gurgling in baseboard heat - DIY Chatroom

in_the_basement · 11-06-2009, 08:35 PM

OK, so here's one that may be a surprise challenge. I know that the common answer to gurggling in the baseboard heat is to bleed the system because there is air in it, but I have bled the system well.

Here are the details: I have been perplexed for 2 years now because I set my heat to go on at 4:30 AM so the house is warm when we wake up. The heat comes on and the gurggling wakes us up. So I bled the system and no air came out. So I tried to repeat the problem at 6:00 at night and could not make it happen. Finally I tried to repeat the EXACT conditions of 4:30 AM and turned both the living room zone and the bedrooms zone on at the same time, and there it was. Gurggling like crazy. If either zone is on by itself the system gurrgles in both zones. If it is on in only one of the zones it gurggles in both areas like crazy. WHat could be the cause of this?

KayJay · 11-07-2009, 12:41 AM

Did you have some sort of prior service on the system that would have allowed air into the heating loops, like changing a circulator pump, zone valve or fill valve/pressure regulator?

Is the system water pressure correct?

If you have a large amount of air in the system then you generally need to initially flush each of the heating loops back at the zone valves.
It’s a little involved, so you should probably have a qualified service tech do this especially since you need to do it carefully so as to keep the system pressure up, but not dump excessive cold water back into the boiler and possibly crack a boiler section.
Let the tech check the automatic air vent and air scoop or otherwise figure out how air is getting into the system as well.