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I have an original radiator system in my home. I don't know how to proporly care for it. What are the year round steps to care for it and if a radiator in the system is cold. what do you do? is it possible that calium has blocked it? LMK Maria
I have an original radiator system in my home. I don't know how to proporly care for it. What are the year round steps to care for it and if a radiator in the system is cold. what do you do? is it possible that calium has blocked it? LMK Maria
There are so many possibilities for non-working, and a lot of things to do to maintain.
Start with the owner's manual- if you have one. If not, find the make and model and see if you can find it on-line. After that, the "best" option is to call a plumber or HVAC company that handles that type of system.
I grew up in an old house with all radiators. Periodically my Dad would go around and "bleed" the radiators. If air gets trapped in the radiator, the water doesn't circulate, and all or part of the radiator could be cold.
Here's one How To Article about bleeding the system. I would google "radiator maintenance" and see if there are any more suggestions. I'm assuming that you have hot water circulating through the pipes. If it's a steam system, then you wouldn't bleed them.
We have a hot water system with old radiaors and a enw boiler. Once we got it to work propely, the maintenance required is to vacuum the dust out of it once a year. There really is not much to it.
Even regular hot water radiators need to be bled, not just steam radiators. It gets the air out of the system so more hot water can flow through.
Usually the upstairs radiators are the ones that get cold because the air bubbles rise in the system. Also, the last radiator on the line (upstairs bathroom) is usually colder because it is uneven/unlevel. Most of the air in the system settles there and it's difficult to bleed because the high end is on the opposite side of the valve side. To resolve this, we would need to replace the radiator or try to level it. We've just learned to live with it since it's only for a small bathroom.
I doubt calcium would be causing your radiator to not be hot. The reason is because all of the water runs through the system---runs through an entire radiator, then leaves that radiator and goes to the next radiator. If calcium were blocking water, it would prevent water from getting to the other radiators on the same line.
Be forewarned, very hot water sputters out while bleeding radiators. Limit how much contact your hands have with the water. Sometimes you will be working a very small space where there isn't enough room for a cup or plastic container to catch the water. We take foil and fold it to create sort of a creek bed for the water to flow down into the cup. Keep the valve open until you no longer hear air sputtering out and you're mostly getting a steady stream of water, then shut the valve.
I'm not going into detail about how to turn on/shut off the valve because someone posted a video for you. I just thought I'd offer some additional tips.
As for the boiler itself, I recommend you have a technician check your boiler every fall until you learn more about boilers. They will do routine maintenance via vacuuming it out, cleaning your flue, checking the pressure levels, checking for corrosion, etc. Watch them while they are doing it and ask lots of questions. That's how you can learn in the beginning and eventually you may feel you can do this yearly maintenance yourself.
Ours have not gotten air in them. But it has only been 7 years. The problems we ahve had were the boiler shutting down (programming error) and water coming out of a back flow valve.
The boiler itself should be checked by a qualified person and to make sure the pump is running when it should. Radiators should be bled annualy. Make sure all valves are open. I live in a house that was built in 1917 that I bought in 1989 and has hot water radiators. I replaced the boiler in 2005 and was told it was over 30 years old. Other than that I've had no problems. I just bleed the radiators yearly and clean any dust that has built up.
You probably don't realize it yet. All systems get air because cold water has more air than hot water. When the water heats up, the air is released from the water. There is nowhere for it to go but the top of the system. As a result, radiators should be bled once a year, not just when a radiator gets cold. It's part of the annual maintenance a technician does, but we take care of it ourselves. The only way you can say for certain that your system doesn't have air in it is to bleed the system. If no air comes out, there was no air. If air comes out, there was air.
That is true, I should have said there is not enough air to make any noticeable difference in the performance of the system. We have to be careful about opening those plugs on the radiators, They are old and some of them start leaking at the threads when you do this, especially if you are not super careful about not overtightening them.
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