Hello! I’m having some pretty big problems with my boiler hydronic system. Let me start by saying this entire system is from 1970 and was more than likely never serviced by a professional.
My grandpa built and owned this house and my father bought it from him when I was a kid and they always did repairs themselves to pretty much everything. Even if it made more sense to just replace something my dad would fix it until it couldn’t be fixed anymore. Its also worth noting that I have no idea what I am doing with the boiler aside from minor repairs and a little plumbing knowledge. I now own this home because my father died in 2014 and have lived here since with no issues until just about a week ago. It started by only heating the rear of the house (bedrooms, bathroom) but not the front (Living room, Dining Room, and Kitchen and utility room.) Water would flow through the the rear of the house but not the front.
It started to short cycle on me and the rear of the house stopped working. The boiler itself is overheating and shutting down .. the pipe with the beer can jerry rig gets extremely hot and the one coming from the pump is luke warm at best .. the pipe to the expansion tank will also sometimes get extremely hot with the tank itself banging and popping making me extremely nervous to even go near it when in reality that’s what the pressure relief valve is for and I am probably in no danger of making that explode. The baseboard that is directly above the boiler on the main floor will also pop and bang very loudly.
I came to the conclusion with all this banging that my system must be vapor locked. One gigantic problem with it being vapor locked is that NONE of the baseboards have a bleeder on them. I called a guy who came to look at it and he told me that I am better off just replacing the entire system with a forced air one which would be around $18,000 .. There absolutely no way I can get that kind of money even with a loan so I got a second opinion from another company and this guy told me it is most likely vapor locked and showed me how to bleed it from the basement via those two valves in the pictures.
He told me what actually needed to be replaced as well which is the expansion tank, pump, pressure release valve…the thing with the beer can in the pictures and one pipe that is just made out of the wrong metal .. dad probably just fixed it with what he had available at the time. Oh the vent duct from the water heater as well needs to be replaced but that’s an easy 10 bucks and he said something about an cold air something or other..lol I don’t remember what he said but something that should be in-line.
He quoted $1,500 including labor .. but these fixes look pretty simple to do myself. The problem is .. I have no idea exactly what I need to buy (as in the same specs as the current system). I am still attempting to bleed the air out of the system just to see if I can get some heat while I try to get money together. When I do try to bleed it and the boiler kicks on it gets so hot that I can’t tell if air is coming from the whole system or just from the boiler from how hot it is.
I had an incident where the old hose I had connected blew off because of the pressure and I frantically tried to get that valve closed while it sprayed boiling hot water all over the basement and me. When I do this the expansion tank does stop popping and so does the baseboard though .. It will start doing it again after the boiler kicks back on though.
Does anyone have any tips on how to bleed this kind of system with no actual bleeder valves? When should I close the valve and switch to the one next to it while I am bleeding from the basement? The luke warm pipe does get nice and hot after letting the air out for a little bit. The expansion tank is pretty full of water and the pressure gauge is climbing to 30 with the boiler off.
It starts by just pushing water but after a minute it starts throwing air and I am worried that I am just draining the system of all its water which is why the air is coming out…and that I am actually not bleeding it at all even though it seems like I am. Can you tell from the pictures what I would need to buy? I know its highly unlikely you could but there aren’t any labels on these parts aside from the pressure valve. Its going to be extremely cold for me here in central wisconsin and getting worse I hope someone can help!
I know I am better off just having the professional do it for the 1,500 but I am positive that I can do it myself with the right part information.