Bleeding Weil McLain gas heated boiler
rbo...@yahoo.com
is no time to be getting no heat. I've been poking around the net and
still not found directions on how to do it as it pertains to the model
we've got, a Weil McLain CGM 25A Series 9.
Here's a pic: http://home.earthlink.net/~vdubreeze/boilerpic1.JPG
If anyone has a doc they can cut and paste for me I'd be eternally
grateful.
Thanks!!
R
Berkshire Bill
<rbo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1169926647.6...@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
What are you bleeding? My first worry would be that piece of flue pipe that
looks like it has sprung open.
Bill
Speedy Jim
That looks like a forced hot water (Hydronic) boiler.
There is nothing to bleed at the boiler; generally
any bleeding is done at vents on each loop or rad.
http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/hydronic.html
may be of some help.
See that the pressure gauge is showing enough "height"
in feet to reach the highest rad.
Jim
rbo...@yahoo.com
Thanks so much for the quick replies. I also realized after I
posted that I didn't really mean I needed model specific directions,
but what I found thusfar was all "turn it off, open the widgetpipe, do
this", but not knowing about these things I need to be pointed to
which one is the widget pipe.
Our apartment's heat is from water forced up through covered pipes
that snake the perimeter of the rooms. I can't find any anything
adjustable along those.
Bill, which is the flue pipe?
Thanks for the information.
R
rbo...@yahoo.com
the vent on top gets warm. In fact, sometimes you even get the
telltale sound of water rushing through the pipes in the apartment.
But very intermittent heat over the past week and currently none.
Thanks again for your knowledge.
R
Doug Miller
>It suddenly got pretty darn cold in NY (finally, I suppose) and this
>is no time to be getting no heat. I've been poking around the net and
>still not found directions on how to do it as it pertains to the model
>we've got, a Weil McLain CGM 25A Series 9.
Why do you believe you need to bleed the boiler?
Lots of things can cause "no heat" -- but air in the boiler is pretty far down
on the list. Sure looks like this boiler is in the basement, which means that
most, if not all, of the radiators are higher than the boiler. That means that
if there's enough air in the system to prevent water from circulating, it's in
the radiators, not in the boiler.
I'm assuming this is *not* a gravity (convection) circulation system, since I
think I see a circulating pump just to the right of the boiler, correct?
First things first!!
-- is the circulator even running?
-- does the boiler ignite?
If the answer to either of these questions is 'no', fix *that* problem first,
then see if you need to do anything else.
Wouldn't hurt to post a photo of the circulator(s), too.
How many circulators are there, and how many zones? Any zone valves in the
system? Do you have heat *anywhere* in the house?
--
Regards,
Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)
It's time to throw all their damned tea in the harbor again.
Doug Miller
>Our apartment's heat
Stop right there!!
Call your landlord. It's *his* problem, and *his* responsibility to fix.
rbo...@yahoo.com
Thanks for taking the time to look at the pic and reply.
Yes, it's a four unit rentall, with four separate boilers. The
landlord has us call a specific local plumbing/heating place, but I
can't get them here until next week. This cold snap coincided with
one of my kids getting sick, so I wasn't liking the idea of no heat
until then. I work an hour away from home with an inflexible
schedule, so for emergencies I stay home and kill the day waiting for
the repair person, but if there's anything not so pressing or skill -
requiring that I can make right over the weekend, I try to.
Obviously I wouldn't fool myself that I should do anything I
shouldn't, but these little things sometimes add up to make me go
online and see what I have here instead of waiting. : )
I started looking in to it because another tenant had the same issue
in the fall and said the guy went into the boiler room (yes, in the
basement), spent a few minutes turning things off and on and left, and
then all was well. The other tenant said he had bled it, but I
don't know that for sure, it just gave me a starting place to start
asking questions : )
I'll need to find out more about circulators before I can answer the
questions about those. Like what's a circulator?
But the boiler does ignite and warm up, and water 'seems' to start
circulating in the apartment pipes.
Time to leave the message with the pro and hope it gets a little
warmer in the meantime!!!
Thanks again,
R
Edwin Pawlowski
<rbo...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> I started looking in to it because another tenant had the same issue
> in the fall and said the guy went into the boiler room (yes, in the
> basement), spent a few minutes turning things off and on and left, and
> then all was well. The other tenant said he had bled it, but I
> don't know that for sure, it just gave me a starting place to start
> asking questions : )
>
> I'll need to find out more about circulators before I can answer the
> questions about those. Like what's a circulator?
Look for a drain valve on the system. With a bucket under it, open the
valve. You may get lots of air mixed with water, or even lots of air only
at first. It may not get it all, but it may get enough air out so that some
water will circulate. Thee should be a fill vale on the line feeding the
boiler. Be sure it is open to allow water to flow in.
A circulator is a motor driven pump. It is in the water line of the system,
hanging off the boiler, not an actual part of it. The vale I'm talking
about may be right above it.
Doug Miller
>I'll need to find out more about circulators before I can answer the
>questions about those. Like what's a circulator?
It's a pump that moves the hot water around through the pipes.
Here's a pic of the ones in my basement:
http://www.milmac.com/Circulators.jpg
>
>But the boiler does ignite and warm up, and water 'seems' to start
>circulating in the apartment pipes.
If the circulator has failed, you'll get some small amount of circulation just
due to convection -- but not nearly enough. That might be the problem.
If the circulator is running, you should be able to hear it if you're standing
right next to it. They don't make much noise, but it should be audible. And if
you put your hand on it, you'll definitely feel slight vibration. If it's
working.
Electrical supplies to any motor load usually have a fuse in-line somewhere.
If the circulator isn't running, the problem may be as simple as a blown fuse.
You can learn a *lot* about how hydronic (hot water) heating systems work at
http://www.heatinghelp.com
rbo...@yahoo.com
responses. The innards of electricity and plumbing are things I know
only the most basic things about, but I respect them like I respect
the ocean, and I respect people who have deep understanding of them.
And the ones who don't make me feel like an idiot are even better!
So I didn't do anything until the pro came today. He walked me
through the bleeding process, which was good, because it was more than
I had gleaned from the net. For example, he changed the pressure to
30 lbs before he started, which is something I wouldn't have known to
do, and I would have waited a long time with nothing happening without
it. Speedy Jim, you did say to "See that the pressure gauge is
showing enough "height" in feet to reach the highest rad", but, well,
I'm not too embarassed to say I stood there for a while ready to bleed
it Sunday and I said "You know, I'm not really sure what that
means!" : ) And then the air didn't show for a little while, and I
wouldn't have been smart enough to know what to be expecting, even if
I was doing the procedure properly.
And that put us in business, I'm happy to say. He thought the relays
were making a bit too much noise, and pointed out another thing or two
that may hinder the boiler kicking in, but since that hasn't been a
problem at all we're letting that go for now.
The owner of the building aren't bad folks, but they live hours away
and are the epitome of "hands off. They're a family not really in
real estate that ended up with these apts, don't employ a building
manager (it's just a 4 unit building and I know of only one other they
have) and after years of us calling to tell them something needed
fixing, and them telling us to just get it fixed, within reason, and
take it off the rent, now we just do these things as they come up.
Which is how we end up making some decisions. If we called them to
take care of it it wouldn't get done : ) But this routine is the way
they choose to do it, and I don't really mind.
Thanks again for taking the time in this!
RB
Nestor Kelebay
http://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/Bleeding-Weil-McLain-gas-heated-boiler-188994-.htm
Nestor Kelebay wrote:
rboy505:
If the boiler is located in your basement, then any air in your heating
system will rise to the top of your heating system, and it's easier to
simply have air vents at the top of your upstairs radiators to bleed off
any trapped air.
On cast iron baseboard radiators, there will be one air vent at the top of
each radiator. On copper tube finned radiators, there will typically be a
tee instead of an elbow at the DOWN STREAM end of each radiator train.
They put a tee there because they'll normally solder a 1/8" X 3/4" air
vent bushing into the top arm of that tee.
Weil McLain should have a tech support phone number if you go to their web
site. Just buy a long distance calling card at your local supermarket so
that you can call anywhere in North America for 5 cents a minute. You
should be able to resolve the problem in 100 mintues of talking time for
$5.
-------------------------------------
..in solidarity with the movement for change in Iran.
bud--
> responding to
> http://www.homeownershub.com/maintenance/Bleeding-Weil-McLain-gas-heated-boiler-188994-.htm
> Nestor Kelebay wrote:
>
Another idiot post from homeownershub.
You are responding to a question that is almost 3 years old.
Do you think the OP is sill around?
It doesn't really matter. The OP said that the problem was solved.
You are responding to a usenet newsgroup. Maybe you could find out what
usenet is.
Homeowners' hub is a parasite that steals the work of others.