New water radiator not working, please help

Yardley · 10-10-2011, 06:14 PM

Hello, we recently had the bathroom renovated in our 100+ year old house and had a new water baseboard heater installed. Yesterday we turned on the heat for the first time ever since moving in and since the renovation, and the bathroom heater is not working. The other original heaters on the third flood where the bathroom is located are working fine. I did some reading where it was suggested that one bleed the heater, however I see no valve anywhere on the new baseboard heater. I should also mention that I went to the second floor and tested the exposed pipe that feeds the bathroom radiator on the third floor, and it only warms up at the very bottom, the top is cold. Please help!

Mark Potter · 10-10-2011, 06:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yardley

Hello, we recently had the bathroom renovated in our 100+ year old house and had a new water baseboard heater installed. Yesterday we turned on the heat for the first time ever since moving in and since the renovation, and the bathroom heater is not working. The other original heaters on the third flood where the bathroom is located are working fine. I did some reading where it was suggested that one bleed the heater, however I see no valve anywhere on the new baseboard heater. I should also mention that I went to the second floor and tested the exposed pipe that feeds the bathroom radiator on the third floor, and it only warms up at the very bottom, the top is cold. Please help!

Sounds like you have air caught in that section.
Do you have a shut off for the heat return

H|P Capital

Yardley · 10-10-2011, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Potter

Sounds like you have air caught in that section.
Do you have a shut off for the heat return

H|P Capital

Sorry I don't know anything about plumbing. Is the heat return the pipe that carries water back down? There are a few shut off handles there but I don't know which one does what. The boiler is a Weil MacLain Ultra with PhD. I will take some pictures.

Daniel Holzman · 10-10-2011, 07:54 PM

Unless you have a whole house deaerator (which would be near the boiler), you need to bleed the air out of each radiator. There should be a small valve (called a coin valve) on each radiator, typically on the end where the hot water pipe comes in to the radiator. Typically you turn on the system, and bleed each valve at the start of the heating season, and in my case I usually bleed once in the middle of the season to take care of any air that gets in during the first part of the season.

Yardley · 10-10-2011, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daniel Holzman

Unless you have a whole house deaerator (which would be near the boiler), you need to bleed the air out of each radiator. There should be a small valve (called a coin valve) on each radiator, typically on the end where the hot water pipe comes in to the radiator. Typically you turn on the system, and bleed each valve at the start of the heating season, and in my case I usually bleed once in the middle of the season to take care of any air that gets in during the first part of the season.

The other older radiators have the valve, I even bought a radiator key at Home Depot today. But the new one they installed doesn't have one, it looks much like this one

http://www.homeadditionplus.com/images/home_pics/Hydronic_Baseboard_Heater.jpg

I popped it open and the pipes go straight in at both ends with no valves.

Mark Potter · 10-10-2011, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yardley

Sorry I don't know anything about plumbing. Is the heat return the pipe that carries water back down? There are a few shut off handles there but I don't know which one does what. The boiler is a Weil MacLain Ultra with PhD. I will take some pictures.

Take pick of new radiator installed and boiler with pipes attached.
Thanks

H|P Capital

Mark Potter · 10-10-2011, 08:07 PM

Did you install the radiator or did some one else did?

H|P Capital

Yardley · 10-10-2011, 08:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Potter

Take pick of new radiator installed and boiler with pipes attached.
Thanks

H|P Capital

Will do, someone else did.

Mark Potter · 10-10-2011, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yardley

Will do, someone else did.

Ok you said u checked the rest of the radiators for air vents on them?
What's underneath the new radiator basement or nother room?

H|P Capital

Yardley · 10-10-2011, 08:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark Potter

Ok you said u checked the rest of the radiators for air vents on them?
What's underneath the new radiator basement or nother room?

H|P Capital

The other radiators in the house have the valves but they are older bigger units, not cast iron just covered with big boxy covers. The new non working radiator is on the third floor, there are two floors beneath. There are two additional older radiators on the third floor which work fine, only the new one isn't working.

Mark Potter · 10-10-2011, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yardley

The other radiators in the house have the valves but they are older bigger units, not cast iron just covered with big boxy covers. The new non working radiator is on the third floor, there are two floors beneath. There are two additional older radiators on the third floor which work fine, only the new one isn't working.

Need to find out were your out from boiler is for heat and were your return comes in.

Yardley · 10-11-2011, 03:58 PM

Hi guys, I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to photobucket at the link below. You can zoom in on them there or if needed I can provide larger versions. Hope these can help you help me haha. Thanks a lot!

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...rtega9/heater/

biggles · 10-11-2011, 05:27 PM

IT'S BACKWARDS...

shut the system off on the stat and vent the system till you hear no more air..the air in the new section is compressed keep the supply from cycling thru it

if there are no vent around the new section just run it as normal it will work its way out to the X tank so you have radiators and baseboard?new lenght don't come with vents need to install and elbow with a vent cap....

Mark Potter · 10-11-2011, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yardley

Hi guys, I took a bunch of pictures and uploaded them to photobucket at the link below. You can zoom in on them there or if needed I can provide larger versions. Hope these can help you help me haha. Thanks a lot!

http://s23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...rtega9/heater/

Found your problem or one of them at least, you need to turn the circulator motor body upright the red one going out to house this can cause weird thing to happen in the line like air trapping.
Not only that but if it leaks It will most likely get into the wiring you don't Want that. I don't see any boiler drains before and after it gets the the boiler so you will have to drain the boiler

make shore u turn expansion tank off.
What's the psi reading wile you have air locked in the new radiator?