Well yet another heating season is upon us. If I was smart I would have
had my heating system serviced earlier in the year, but I didn't.

My heating system is a oil fired hot water boiler that provides my house
with both domestic hot water and hot water for the baseboard heaters, three
zones. Its a reasonably new furnace so the system works well with a couple
of exceptions. Here's the three issues I have;

#1. Occassionally the furnace doesn't turn on when it should. It takes a
press of the blower's "reset" button to get it started. This is likely a
job for a furnace technician, the cleaning, repair and adjustment of the
furnace blower. I'm not touching this job.

#2. There's air in the heating system, I can hear it gurgling through the
baseboards everytime the circulators kick in. I've looked for a "bleed"
valve which I should find on one of the baseboards but to avail. The system
has an expansion tank, would this be an alternate way to deal with the air
in the system? Can I simply recharge the expansion tank and if so, to what
pressure?

#3. The heating system is sealed, the same water has been circulating about
the house for at least the three years I've lived here. How often should it
be replaced?, flushed?

I'm going to call the service company today, its getting too cold
outside to risk it failing again. Perhaps he'll answer all these questions
for me.

One last thing, has anybody with a simular heating system put in a
mixing valve for the domestic hot water? At the moment the domestic hot
water is at the same temperature as the baseboard heaters, it makes for very
very hot showers.

Any advice you can provide me with would be appreciated.

Handi

Randy wrote:
Well yet another heating season is upon us. If I was smart I would have
had my heating system serviced earlier in the year, but I didn't.

My heating system is a oil fired hot water boiler that provides my house
with both domestic hot water and hot water for the baseboard heaters, three
zones. Its a reasonably new furnace so the system works well with a couple
of exceptions. Here's the three issues I have;

#1. Occassionally the furnace doesn't turn on when it should. It takes a
press of the blower's "reset" button to get it started. This is likely a
job for a furnace technician, the cleaning, repair and adjustment of the
furnace blower. I'm not touching this job.

Depending on the controls, there are all sorts of delays and lockouts to
prevent short cycling or running the boiler dry. A technician probably
needs to look at it. Boilers are not like hot air furnaces -- don't
expect instant responses when you push a button. The system may not
start immediately, and it can continue to run after you think it
should've stopped.


#2. There's air in the heating system, I can hear it gurgling through the
baseboards everytime the circulators kick in. I've looked for a "bleed"
valve which I should find on one of the baseboards but to avail. The system
has an expansion tank, would this be an alternate way to deal with the air
in the system? Can I simply recharge the expansion tank and if so, to what
pressure?

The system should have no air bubbles or dissolved air in the water.
Bubbles will eventually ruin the pump impeller, and dissolved oxygen
rusts cast iron parts. Big air pockets are purged by filling and
venting, usually at the highest point in the system. Dissolved air is
removed with de-airing gadgets - ask the tech to show you where they
are. The expansion tank is a safety device, it has nothing to do with
removing air.


#3. The heating system is sealed, the same water has been circulating about
the house for at least the three years I've lived here. How often should it
be replaced?, flushed?

In a hydronic system running normally, the water is never replaced
because it has all of the air removed, and that's what you want. There
is usually a manual or automatic fill valve that adds small amounts of
water if it's needed due to leaks or venting


I'm going to call the service company today, its getting too cold
outside to risk it failing again. Perhaps he'll answer all these questions
for me.

One last thing, has anybody with a simular heating system put in a
mixing valve for the domestic hot water? At the moment the domestic hot
water is at the same temperature as the baseboard heaters, it makes for very
very hot showers.

A job for the plumber. Using 185F water in your potable DHW system is
NOT a good idea! Do you have an indirect DHW tank with a heat exchanger
coil? A mixing valve at the output will solve the scalding problems.

"Randy" wrote in message


#1. Occassionally the furnace doesn't turn on when it should. It takes a
press of the blower's "reset" button to get it started. This is likely a
job for a furnace technician, the cleaning, repair and adjustment of the
furnace blower. I'm not touching this job.

Furnace technician will be of little help. Get a boiler tech since you have
a boiler, not a furnace.

There are a few reasons the reset will trip. ONe is oil starvation. If the
filter is clogged, or the tank very low, or the nozzle clogged, it will not
ignite and trip out. Do NOT keep hitting the reset. It can cause some
buildup of oil and when it does light off, BOOM, it really goes.


#2. There's air in the heating system, I can hear it gurgling through the
baseboards everytime the circulators kick in. I've looked for a "bleed"
valve which I should find on one of the baseboards but to avail. The
system has an expansion tank, would this be an alternate way to deal with
the air in the system? Can I simply recharge the expansion tank and if
so, to what pressure?

It may not be the tank. Open the drain valve very slightly while the water
is circulating and it will often ltet out any trapped air.


#3. The heating system is sealed, the same water has been circulating
about the house for at least the three years I've lived here. How often
should it be replaced?, flushed?

No, you don't want to introduce fresh water and the oxygen in it.



One last thing, has anybody with a simular heating system put in a
mixing valve for the domestic hot water? At the moment the domestic hot
water is at the same temperature as the baseboard heaters, it makes for
very very hot showers.

Yes, it can be done. Talk to the service guy.