Many homeowners here in the Dayton area heat their homes with a hot water boiler and radiator or baseboard heating system. Maintaining your boiler will help ensure you get the highest level of comfort and energy efficiency. Properly cared for, boiler systems can last a half-century or more. To reach that goal, you can do the following steps on your own – or call in a professional:
Bleed your radiator
- Hold a cup below the opening of the radiator valve.
- Now open the valve by turning in a clockwise direction, using either the bleed key (that you got along with your home) or a flathead screwdriver.
- Pressurized air inside will stream out the open valve.
- Close the valve by turning the bleed key clockwise as soon as you begin to see the black, ugly-looking water in your cup. This tells you all the air is out.
Check boiler pressure
You may opt to leave this task for a professional, but here are the do-it-yourself steps:
- Read the pressure gauge inside the service panel of your boiler. The boiler should be at about 12 psi when the water is cold.
- Add water to the system to increase pressure if the reading is under 12 psi.
- Slowly open the cold water valve and monitor the pressure gauge until it reaches 12 psi; then close the valve completely. If you don’t do this, you will end up with gallons of water all over your floor.
- If the pressure reading is over 15 psi (with the boiler cold) you must remove water from the system.
- Connect a hose from the boiler’s drain to the floor drain or use a large bucket positioned under the drain. Now just open the valve until the pressure gets to 12 psi.
About the combustion chamber
Boiler cleaning and maintenance on the “fire side” of the system, every few years, is best left to a professional HVAC contractor.
Questions about maintaining your boiler? Contact the local home comfort experts at Ace Hardware Home Services, Inc. Visit our website for valuable HVAC tips or give us a call for assistance.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about maintaining your boiler and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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