I'll start by saying that I know almost nothing about boiler heat, except for what I have read in the past couple months. A friend of mine just purchased (against my advice) a large 1920's tutor with boiler heat, and asked me to come take a look. There was no walk through at closing, so they are clueless so to speak.
I know that the system is a circulating hot water system, probably converted over from steam at one point.
About half of the cast radiators have been replaced with fin tube and "toe kick" radiators and a large percentage of the smaller (1" & less) lines have been replaced with copper maybe 25 years ago. I hate to see copper coupled to galvanized, but no obvious signs of galvanic corrosion.
There are two cast radiators that don't get hot. The incoming pipe & valve are hot, but not the radiators. The valves are stuck. I'm guessing that the valve is in the closed position & rusted there. I opened the bleeder & a little water came out, so I immediately shut it. There is a branch (booster?) pump on this branch but the wire has been cut. The pipe is hot on both sides of the pump, so I am assuming that the pump is just freewheeling. I'm capable of replacing the valves, but I just want to make sure I am not getting in over my head.
I had the boiler guy out, but I was not impressed, he seemed to barely know more that me, and he supposedly "inspected" the boiler just a couple weeks ago, but couldn't find the boiler room or thermostat. Hmmm...
I know that the system is a circulating hot water system, probably converted over from steam at one point.
About half of the cast radiators have been replaced with fin tube and "toe kick" radiators and a large percentage of the smaller (1" & less) lines have been replaced with copper maybe 25 years ago. I hate to see copper coupled to galvanized, but no obvious signs of galvanic corrosion.
There are two cast radiators that don't get hot. The incoming pipe & valve are hot, but not the radiators. The valves are stuck. I'm guessing that the valve is in the closed position & rusted there. I opened the bleeder & a little water came out, so I immediately shut it. There is a branch (booster?) pump on this branch but the wire has been cut. The pipe is hot on both sides of the pump, so I am assuming that the pump is just freewheeling. I'm capable of replacing the valves, but I just want to make sure I am not getting in over my head.
I had the boiler guy out, but I was not impressed, he seemed to barely know more that me, and he supposedly "inspected" the boiler just a couple weeks ago, but couldn't find the boiler room or thermostat. Hmmm...