ours in the newer house is not heating correctly.runs good but not getting the amount of heat out the radiators we should.

tell me what you can and what we should be doing.

my thoughts are there is air in the system and it cant hold heat like water.

remember i'm a lifelong trapper mentality and i'm sensitive.

My place has the old radiators and if what your describing happens, I bleed the air out so I think your guessing right.

Mine have bleeders just like brakes on a car. Not sure about base boards tho.

Baseboards should have bleeders on one of the ends.

wife isn't havin my usual"put more clothes on" answer.thanx guys i'll be lookin in a bit.

Not all baseboards have bleeders. If yours don't you have to bleed and fill at the boiler. I've watched my plumber do it at a few rental units, it's a process.

Without seeing how it's plumbed it's tough.
Find the bleeder for that zone. Little brass looking thing with a small cap on top.
Flow water to that zone and loosen that little cap
When water comes out the cap stop the water flow
Let it run a bit and repeat. Sometimes you just don't get it all the first time.

jr.'s cold and sitting here googlin everything.his best friend is the local contractor and they say as soon as they ake up a little they are gonna figure something out.

i think he just wants me to go check traps so he can sleep on the couch in front of the fireplace.

i have to get checkin though cause it aint pretty out and only gettin worse the say.

thanks guys and stay tuned.

Looks like you guys are getting some sleet/freezing rain for the next couple of hours at least.

man,i just went to start the stove in my shop and looked like i had the old flinstone mobile in high gear.everything is coated and they say its just startin.told the wife,you can have 400 wheel drive and it wouldn;t do no good.

feel free to laugh,bathroom is easy access and well lighted so started there.can see step 1 involves a shop vac.but,i look at the bleeder and for no reason i can think of-put the robo grips on it to turn it.fortunately i saw the little screw before i turned anything.

bleed al your highest elevated radiators first! The last few base board units I bled had bleeders on the opposite end of were the water supply was. All of them ive ever worked on either had a bleeder or a union some were close to each radiator. There should also be a pop off at your boiler for bleeding air. That way is messy but slowly works

We have radiators not baseboards, but there's got to be a bleeder of some sort in the system otherwise you'd never be able to fill them up. Depending on if your baseboards are in parallel or series, there may not be a bleeder at every baseboard. Our bleeders look like this....

The hardware store sells a little key to open them. There isn't much pressure in a hydronic heat system, should only be like 2 psi at the highest level of your house so it can take a while to get the air out, and sometimes so much air will come out that there's no pressure, and you have to close the bleeder and let pressure build back up.

2X

we are done with number 1 and have it figured out.wife says only 31 more to go and i know she may have missed one.we are at .2 or .3 in of ice since daylight so not much else to do right now.

huge thanks guys.

the bleeder at the boiler is 5 ft from my sons head so i wont diddle with that for a bit but wifes a vaccumin like no tomorrow.told her how much money we were wastin and bein tighter than bark on a tree,she took off like me when i see the bat signal.

house was built in 1980 so most things are fairly modern and new thankfully.wife did take my bfh aay just to be safe though.

If you have an automatic water feed, make sure it is working before bleeding to much. The system should have 12 pounds when cold. There is a chance that it could be the pump too. Getting weak and not pushing the water well enough.

Would the expansion tank have anything to do with slow flow ?

Would the expansion tank have anything to do with slow flow ?

Only if it is water logged/ Full of water.
It should be just over 1/2 full of water.

Just take your time and bleed the air out one unit at a time.
Things will warm up but remember as you remove the air it is being replaced with cold water at the furnace, so don't rush it.
You most likely will have to do them 2 or 3 times before removing all of the air.

Good luck

thanks guys.imagine its been a while for the whole works.

I had to bleed mine a few times to get the air out. I installed a new boiler and relocated a base board register for a kitchen remodel. As for a bad expansion tank I dont believe it will hurt water flow. The bladder was bad in mine and when the boiler got the water up to temp it would dribble out of the boiler pop off safety valve cause the expanding water had no place to go. My cold pres is 12 psi and up to temp 23-24 psi.

i get that little stream like when youre takin a leek and think your done but nope-not quite-outta each one.