Btlvr
New Member
Hello all! This is my first post. I've been searching the internet for information to fix my problem and keep finding differing info, or maybe not exactly what I need.
What I have is a Weil-Mclain gas hot water boiler. I have a 2 pipe system starting with 1 1/4 " pipe that gets reduced to different sizes at the radiators.
On the first floor I have 2 cast iron rads with 1" pipe, and 2 baseboard copper fin rads with 3/4" pipe. The baseboard rads don't get hot enough to heat the rooms that they are in. These were put in before I bought the house.
The second floor has 4 cast iron rads, all work fine except the one in my bedroom. We thought that it was the manual valve on it that was seized up so we changed out all the valves for TRV's.
So, we installed the TRV's, Honeywell, on all the rads except the cast iron one in the room where the thermostat is. I bled air from all the rads and they all seemed to be ok except, again, the baseboard and my bedroom. I know the copper fins won't stay hot as long as the cast iron, that's why I went to TRV's. So they would stay open longer than the cast iron. My bedroom rad barely gets warm, its usually cold all over. The supply and return pipes are hot though, so I thought maybe there was some blockage. I put in some boiler cleaner and let it run a couple hours but that didn't fix it. I tried to bleed it again and did get some air then cold water. I decided to try bleeding the whole system at the boiler. I ran water through all the rads until I didn't see anymore bubbles then started the boiler again. Same problem! I'm getting really frustrated now!
I did some more research and found a post in the HVAC Heating and Cooling forum from 2009 someone mentioned Bell and Gossett's booklet "Zoning guide book". Now, reading through this it mentions that when using non electric valves with TRV's, that you should have the circulator running continuously as long as there is a bypass for the water to run. Then the burner will go on and off as called for by the thermostat. Is this the right way to run it in the winter? How do I get the circulator to run continuously?
I also found an article about balancing rads. It said that you should either have a TRV valve that has an adjustable balancing cartridge or a lock shield valve on the return pipe. The valves I have are not adjustable and I don't have lock shield valves. Do I need to install these? The Honeywell install direction and diagrams didn't say anything about lock shield valves.
I would really appreciate any help!!
What I have is a Weil-Mclain gas hot water boiler. I have a 2 pipe system starting with 1 1/4 " pipe that gets reduced to different sizes at the radiators.
On the first floor I have 2 cast iron rads with 1" pipe, and 2 baseboard copper fin rads with 3/4" pipe. The baseboard rads don't get hot enough to heat the rooms that they are in. These were put in before I bought the house.
The second floor has 4 cast iron rads, all work fine except the one in my bedroom. We thought that it was the manual valve on it that was seized up so we changed out all the valves for TRV's.
So, we installed the TRV's, Honeywell, on all the rads except the cast iron one in the room where the thermostat is. I bled air from all the rads and they all seemed to be ok except, again, the baseboard and my bedroom. I know the copper fins won't stay hot as long as the cast iron, that's why I went to TRV's. So they would stay open longer than the cast iron. My bedroom rad barely gets warm, its usually cold all over. The supply and return pipes are hot though, so I thought maybe there was some blockage. I put in some boiler cleaner and let it run a couple hours but that didn't fix it. I tried to bleed it again and did get some air then cold water. I decided to try bleeding the whole system at the boiler. I ran water through all the rads until I didn't see anymore bubbles then started the boiler again. Same problem! I'm getting really frustrated now!
I did some more research and found a post in the HVAC Heating and Cooling forum from 2009 someone mentioned Bell and Gossett's booklet "Zoning guide book". Now, reading through this it mentions that when using non electric valves with TRV's, that you should have the circulator running continuously as long as there is a bypass for the water to run. Then the burner will go on and off as called for by the thermostat. Is this the right way to run it in the winter? How do I get the circulator to run continuously?
I also found an article about balancing rads. It said that you should either have a TRV valve that has an adjustable balancing cartridge or a lock shield valve on the return pipe. The valves I have are not adjustable and I don't have lock shield valves. Do I need to install these? The Honeywell install direction and diagrams didn't say anything about lock shield valves.
I would really appreciate any help!!
