Constantly getting air in system - weekly bleeding air


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Old 02-21-19, 02:32 PM
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Constantly getting air in system - weekly bleeding air

We have bought our house 16 years ago which originally only had heat on the first floor. We had baseboards added to the second floor and a bigger heater installed with in the first couple years. We haven't had any problems with our system for at least the past 10 years its been working great. Now this year nothing but gurgling. It seems to be only the first floor that we get air in. We bleed both zones but only seem to get air out of the first floor and the second floor never gurgles. After we bleed the system using the bucket method it can be fine for a couple days and then starts gurgling again. We see no visible leaks. Our system is in the basement so all pipes are visible. We thought maybe a crack in the boiler since we can't see any leaks but then why does it only happen on the first floor. We have a non-diaphram expansion tank on the system and over the past couple weeks just before the heater is about to turn off we hear gurgling coming from the expansion tank, we are assuming it is air going in there. It takes forever for us to bleed the system because we can only open the valve 1/4 open or we loose all the pressure in the system withing a minute. We do have an automatic feeder and we do set it to manual fill but it takes 10 minutes to bring the pressure up to 15psi then as soon as we crack the valve open with the hose in the bucket it starts to drop fast so we can't open it fully and have to flush it as slow as our automatic feeder is feeding. Any suggestions would be helpful thanks!!
 
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Old 02-21-19, 04:47 PM
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You need to drain that expansion tank. The type thats in the ceiling I assume..

Also pics help.. Maybe some uneducated person came and added air vents to a system that is not supposed to have them. If so then your probably adding more air to the system through said vents..

Also adding makeup water adds more air.

Your just making things worse..

Sounds like you need a new fastfill too. You should be able to lift the handle on the fill valve and fill at a fast rate..
 
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Old 02-21-19, 04:50 PM
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Bleeding your system at 15 PSI and letting it drop will not get it done. Every time water feeds back in air will come with it. You are just going around in circles.

Why does it take so long to fill your system, low water pressure coming in or a defective feed valve.

Pic would be very helpful and exactly how you are trying to bleed the zone. Bleeding must be done at high pressure of at least 25-28 PSI.

Hope this helps a little.
 
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Old 02-22-19, 04:39 AM
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We did drain the expansion tank quite a few times over the past two months. It did not seem to be totally full. I don’t know what air vents are but if they are the same we do have two automatic bleeders (one on the boiler and one on an old radiator in the 1st floor bedroom) and a manual t style bleeder on one baseboard in the living room. But those have been there without problems for 10+ years.

To bleed system we shut off thermostats and boiler, attach a hose to the bib and place it in a bucket, we turn the auto feed to manual override to bump up the pressure, sometimes we close off the expansion tank (don’t know if we should or not) close the return line just below the hose bib, close the return for both zones manually open the zone we want then slowly open the return for that zone paying attention to not let the pressure drop too much

Can I insert pictures from my phone or do they need to be on a link saved somewhere?
 
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Old 02-22-19, 01:17 PM
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Go to the sticky's at the beginning of the sight and it is the first post on how to insert pics.
 
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Old 02-23-19, 08:18 AM
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Automatic air bleeders & conventional expansion tanks are a bad mix. Make sure the caps on those bleeders are screwed down tight.
 
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Old 02-23-19, 01:32 PM
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Draining water from the expansion tank will not eliminate air in the system - it will actually make it worse.
 
 

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