Hot-Water Heating → Troubleshooting Help Topics

This section is your guide to hot-water heating systems with information about system design and piping, air elimination, pumping away, primary-secondary pumping, valves, radiators, troubleshooting tips, and more.

Recent Articles in Hot-Water Heating → Troubleshooting

The Return Pipe That Was a Supply

The heating business has a way of humbling you. After more than 25 years of running service calls on all types of heating and cooling systems, I had managed to tackle the...

Published on 07/27/2017 2:44 PM by Dan Foley
Posted in Hot-Water Heating
rust1
The Second Law of Thermodynamics

I fought the law and the law won. That should be the favorite song of any installer who tries to fight this one. Mother Nature is stubborn when it comes to evening out th...

Published on 06/19/2017 5:01 PM by Dan Holohan
Posted in Hot-Water Heating
Steam Water Hammer
A Heated Exchange

For want of a vacuum breaker, water hammer destroyed this heat exchanger. The call came in when I was young, eager, and paying close attention to the grown-ups. I had bee...

Published on 08/23/2015 4:23 PM
Posted in Hot-Water Heating
jack chop first door
Banging Zone Valves

Here's Johnny! It sounded like someone was coming through the front door with a fire axe. We were sound asleep and then it arrived, as it did night after night, all winte...

Published on 06/23/2014 12:30 PM
Posted in Hot-Water Heating
compression tank
Why Some Compression Tanks Fail

Packaged boilers have been popular for a very long time and they sure do make a contractor’s life easier. These days, most packaged boilers come with a circulator in the ...

Published on 06/18/2014 1:12 PM by Dan Holohan
Posted in Hot-Water Heating