Home heating question (bleed valve?)

[swank60]

Swank60 - are you actually a girl in real life?? Quit being such a and go play with fire or something - chainsaw juggler my ass!!!

And are you that worried about scalding your anus? That would be like the last body part that gets hit with a direct spray, unless you were warming your naked ass with a baseboard heater Although it does sound extremely painful, that was really random dude, and just a little weird too at the same time.

I came to this discussion for the dangerous form of home heating, but stayed for the scalded anuses.

I don't know - I guess I don't know anything about these - I assume - new versions of the hot water home heating things. The old radiators that I've been explosed to were bad friggin news. Plus, leaking, scalding water + children = bad combo, in my book. But you know, if you don't give a crap about your kids and don't mind them getting burned, I guess I would come off as a

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going upstairs to screw your grandma...

 

[albee]

I would use a sprial (sp) vent. It is a air elimanator. The one I used was about $70 it was not the cheapest, but it might be the best. If you can sweat copper pipe then you can put it in. You do not need to drain your system. Just close the feed and return lines from all of the zones, then drain the rest. I built a radient heating system for my house w/o any problems and saved about $12,000. It is not rocket science just take your time.

 

[LukeZero]

It's a free country- so, you can do whatever you want. I'm not going to judge your mechanical skill from this far away... but I do see "jobs" that should have been left to professionals every day. Of course, the customers that can handle it themselves, don't call for help, so my perspective is a little skewed. I still say, if you're in doubt- hire it out. And I'm going to try to ignore the comment above about a homebuilt radiant heat job- it may work, but I can say with 100% certainty- it ain't right. Luke

 

[Jman]

but I do see "jobs" that should have been left to professionals every day.

I hear you. But to be fair, I've seen "professional" jobs that could have been done better by my son, age 3.

When I renovated my house, I wound up firing the plumbing subcontractor our contractor had hired--just running the pipes for the heat, he drilled a 4" hole in an 8" joist for a 3/4" pipe, stepped between two joists and manage to put entire his leg through the plaster ceiling below (nearly destroying the plaster medallion around the chandelier), etc. Real three stooges material. Then, when we started talking about the furnace, he wanted to charge me another $1000 to run the vent up through three floors; turns out it was a direct-vent furnace (that's what got him fired). Then, after firing the general contractor for hiring such a clown , I got a "decent" plumber, but he wound up running the zones wrong (didn't put in enough valves to properly flush the system, one zone at a time) AND during the test run he didn't notice that the circulating pump on the furnace was not running, so in essence, for the first few weeks, the furnace was boiling water, turning it into steam, which was circulating through the pipes. Wow, was that noisy. At least he did a good job sweating the joints--no leaks! I got the pump running on my own, and the guys brother came in later and re-routed the zones (shaking his head).

I usually like trusting such work to the professionals, but with plumbers, I've been burned. Now, my electrician was a gift from heaven. Eight years later, not so much as a tripped circuit breaker, and the bathroom vent fans aren't howling. The only complaint is that he installed all the outlets "upside-down." Gotta plug the battery chargers, etc., heavy-side up.

 

[LukeZero]

The outlets aren't upside down- that's done so that if the plug is part way out the receptacle and some thing falls down the surface of the wall and comes in contact with the prongs, it contacts the ground first rather than the hot prong. But, I hear you, no one designs battery chargers for cell phones, digital cameras, etc for the way your are installed. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that the plumbers/heating men you've had previously were below your expectations- that reflects badly on our whole industry. Seriously, go to www. heatinghelp.com and click on "find a contractor" I think you'll be nicely surprised by how a competent contractor can fix a problem right, the first time, and quickly (read inexpensively). Good luck, Luke

 

[Jman]

Luke, thanks, didn't think about the ground/hot wire thing, that makes me feel better.

I was a noob homeowner, trusted a personal recommendation, like to think I'm a bit wiser now. I just chalk it up as a learning experience. In the end, I got the job done right, at a decent price, the only thing that I lost really was time (and it took a few years off my life, I'm sure).

I've got two good plumbers in my rolodex, but as you know this is super-busy-season and this is not an emergency, more a quality of life problem. Heck, I'll probably put doing it myself off long enough to get a pro come by in the spring. . . ..