NEED HELP. Upstairs Heat NOT working

[hazmat]

FYI I also posted on CBN, but there is a bigger audience here:

Forced hot water baseboard 3 zones (1st floor, 2nd floot & basement) + Boilermate Hot Water heater.

1st floor, basement & HW work.

No heat on 2nd floor.

I twisted wires together at t-stat
Got 24vac at the electric control box & at zone valve.

"Taco" brand zone valve, has lever for "auto" or "open" tried moving it to open, still no water flowing thru zone. (if I shut the manual valve on the other side of the system I can hear the water stop on the other zones. When I opened the drain for that zone, water came out.

What do you think? Frozen pipe? (It was 0 this morning). We let heat go down to 50 when we aren't there (Auto thermostats), but I do fire up the wood stove (on 1st floor) before I leave for work, usually puts out heat for 7-8 hours. Or maybe the zone valve is sticking? I guess I should call the plumber either way. (both are beyond my abilities to fix).

I closed the manual valve & disconnected the T-stat in hopes of isolating the zone in case it is a frozen pipe & decides to burst & flood the house.

Please help!

 

[Thomas]

I would try and remove the control head from the valve body,and make sure the stem was indeed open for flow...could be a bad controler.

I would check the pipes for swelling..sign of a frozen pipe..if you notice swell pipe a hair dryer can be a great help,also ready to valve off that zone if the pipe should start leaking.

If you can drain that zone,I would also try blowing air thru the lines..might help at the trouble spot.

Let us know how you made out.

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue> would try and remove the control head from the valve body,and make sure the stem was indeed open for flow...could be a bad controler.</font color=blue>

Well Don't know what the stem is supposed to look like, so I swapped the controller head w/ the basement heat zone. The basement heat still worked, but no go on the 2nd floor heat. So I think that part was still working.

<font color=blue>I would check the pipes for swelling..sign of a frozen pipe..if you notice swell pipe a hair dryer can be a great help,also ready to valve off that zone if the pipe should start leaking.</font color=blue>

No visable swelling. The pipe is only accessable in the basement. I think it runs up an outside wall/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif.

Thanks for the suggestions.
I'm calling the plumber now.

 

[ejb]

>>but I do fire up the wood stove (on 1st floor) before I leave for work

My first guess would be some air trapped in the pipes..I had a similar problem and just bled out the air at the baseboard (very simple to do) and voila...heat.

I am concerned about you statement above however...when it is really cold out, unless you have anti-freeze in your system, you defintely DO NOT want to crank up the woodstove and turn down the thermostat...the woodstove is going to heat the house enough to keep the thermostat from kicking in...remember, the thermostat checks to see if the room temperature is at 50, not the temperature in the pipes. So as long as the woodstove is keeping the house above 50, the thermostat is never going to circulate water and keep the pipes from freezing. (I learned this the hard way aout 15 years ago).

If your pipes are frozen, I'd get on it right away and not even consider going to work or leav ing the house until you get it resolved...the sooner the better.

With any luck it is just the air, but my guess is the pipes are frozen....when its this cold out I keep the thermostat at 70 all day and 65 at night....home or not.

 

[Mark_in_NH]

I have to agree with ejb. The problem being trapped air is a possibility especially if you DO have antifreeze in the heating system. If your system has straight water, I would definatly suspect a freeze up and would attend to it or have it attended to immediatly.
Here in New Hampshire having antifreeze in you heating system is a must. !!!!!!
Good luck.

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue>DO NOT want to crank up the woodstove and turn down the thermostat...the woodstove is going to heat the house enough to keep the thermostat from kicking in...remember, the thermostat checks to see if the room temperature is at 50, not the temperature in the pipes. So as long as the woodstove is keeping the house above 50, the thermostat is never going to circulate water and keep the pipes from freezing. (I learned this the hard way aout 15 years ago).</font color=blue>

I was afraid this was the cause of the problem, see what I get for trying to save a buck. Oh well, I guess you have to learn the hard way once in a while. I'm still trying to make the transition from young and foolish to old and wise.

Here's hoping the pipe doesn't burst! (assuming we didn't get lucky and its just a stuck valve)

I'm going back home at noon to meet the plumber. That was the earliest they'd be there.

 

[Egon]

A little fuzzy on how your system works but it would appear you can isolate and drain the affected system.

If so you may try and pour methanol into some point at the top of the system and hope it will work down to the blokage if it is frozen. Also, like others have said blowing hot air along the pipe is a good idea.

On the far side if the pipe is frozen hook up a welder to the pipe. It's hard on the welder and may heat things up too fast. Never seen it done but have head of it. Remember, I said on the FAR SIDE.

As I can recall spending many hours with a steam hose thawing frozen lines I do not envy your situation.

Best of luck.

Egon

 

[ejb]

>>see what I get for trying to save a buck.

As I said above, I made the exact same mistake years ago...for the same reason..to save money. Figured I'd save all that money on oil, unfortunately all the savings and then some went to the plumber. I got it really bad, heating system and the tap water all froze up solid, and it took about 36 hours to get a plumber, so things kept freezing worse and worse.

I think we had about 20 different breaks in the pipes...yikes. I don't miss that house.

I amazed that you could get a plumber that quick in this weather...good luck.

 

[hazmat]

<font color=blue> amazed that you could get a plumber that quick in this weather...good luck</font color=blue>

I think we get special treatment by being an existing customer. There is even a special option on the voice mail system for repeat customers w/ emergencies.

The plumbers must be loving or hating the overtime!

 

[Wingnut]

I had that problem back in Alberta .... had a house with hot water heating ... it was wonderful BUT you had to remember to leavre the zone valves open for circulation if it got cold. We had a weekend with -30 temps and a wicked north wind hitting the house ... and that wind did it in ... came home from a visit to town to discover the second floor was VERY cold. The copper pipes froze and burst in two places .... and it is VERY hard to repair when there is no room. The house was a cedar a-frame and the pipes on the second floor were at the "bottom of the A" .... hard to cut when you can't twist the cutter around the pipe and hard to solder when the pipe is an inch from a cedar wood wall ....
Anyway ... I hope it's not frozen ... and, if it is, that it's easy to get at.
Good luck!