I've read online how to shut down the system and purge the air from theindividual baseboard units in each room...but frankly I've got a lot ofthose units......and when I last had my plumber in here he said I could justopen up one of the values on the return near the Boiler and drain the waterout...he said drain until you no longer hear the "spurts" of air coming out,and its just water. Then turn the furnace back on and let it fill itself upagain....and rebuild its pressure.Ok...its worked fine every time over the past few years...except for thistime.For some reason now I think its another zone, because draining some waterfrom my system resulted in a drop in waterpressure (temporarily) but no airseemed to bleed out...this was from the return spigot I usually use.I've got two other red knobs that are on the return line...a little lessconvenient for me to reach to, but they're doable..I just have to be carefulnot to totally scald myself.As I understand it, the object is to:1) Shut off the furnace2) Let the water cool a few hours so I dont burn myself on any blisteringhot water (I'll wear gloves just in case).3) Close the valve swich for that zone (located after the drain spigot onthe way to the main return line) so that any water coming out willdefinately come out of the spigot and not continue on through the rest ofthe return system, back into the furnace.4) Open the spigot with either a drain hose or a bucket underneath and drainout the water, or at least a majority of the water until one hears thespurts of air disappear.Now here's my question: If you drain out the water this way, don't you needthe furance ON to provide more water AS the air is being bled out? Or doesthe automatic refill/leveling of the furnace happen independent of thefurnace actually being on or off (ie: turning the furnace "on" really justmeans turning the heat and electrical relays for the zones on).I'm kinda confused....and wouldn't mind paying to have my plumber come andshow me whats what,...

You have the right plan.You turn off the boiler to get the pump to shut off and all the zone valvesto open. The water pressure for the purge comes from the compressed air inthe expansion tank. The lost water will slowly refill from the PressureReducing Valve whether the boiler is on or off.MM

Asked 1000 times before but: Purging air from Baseboard?

Feb 03, 2004 21 Replies

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kenny b 22 years ago

whats the question? I'll be qlad to give you my ans.

kenny b

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Jay A. 22 years ago

Install a Spirovent and you'll eliminate almost any airlock problem you could ever have. I've installed 45 boilers in the last 4 years and I wouldn't even think of not using one. I'm not going to waste my time on call backs that are unnecessary just because of of a few extra dollars on a part that can be rolled into the job. And I haven't had one single call back for air locked lines since using the Spirovent.

Just my 2 cents or 1.25 seconds of a plumbers time at $60 per hour.

Jay

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