Hi I hope someone can help me.

I have hot water baseboard heat. It works fine in a recently added bedroom and with 2 new baseboard heaters in the kitchen and bath. However, in the rest of the house, the baseboards don't give off much heat at all. I have hard water. Could those old baseboard heaters be clogged with sediment? My neighbor checked a couple for air but that didn't seem to be the problem.

Thanks for any help you can give me

Noreen

Possibilities

1. They need to be cleaned. The easiest way is with compressed air and a vacuum.

2. Carpet has been installed underneath them. This stops the convective flow of air over the heating element.

The connections to the new room may have disrupted the flow to the rest of the house.

the most common piping arangement for baseboard heat is in series.
the feed goes into heater 1, out of 1 and into 2, out of 2 and into 3 etc..
so if the first one heats they all should heat.(with a few technical exceptions)
obviously, without knowing how they are piped, we can only guess and that guess will not be acurate..

I don't think the new heaters disrupted the flow to the rest of the house. They were not giving off much heat before I had the new ones installed. Thanks for the idea though



Edited 1 times.

If it is a loop system ANY ONE of the radiators could have air in them which would disrupt the entire system. How did he "check for air" because they do not usually have individual air vents?

You would have to stay with us, for a while, to have a chance at discovering the problem. You would need to check things then report back. If you only come every few days, it'll be a cold winter. Photos of the system would help. We need to determine if they are a series loop, monoflow, direct return, reverse return, multi-zone( circ or zone valve). It has to be back and forth interaction to work.

Or just call a professional heating service technician and get it taken care of before you freeze.

the old baseboard heaters have a little screw at the end of the pipe that can be opened to let out any trapped air. He did not, however open all of them so if air in any one can disrupt the flow, I guess I should check them all.


thanks

Wow, I didn't know there were so many different kinds of baseboard heaters!

If they are getting warm, end to end, then you are getting circulation and air is not your problem.

I already had a heating guy in. To go back to the beginning, the heat pipes originally went from the boiler to the new bedroom, then to radiant heat coils under the kitchen and bathroom, then on to the other rooms of the house. He said that was not a good way to do that. The radiant heat should have been on a separate connection (I hope I'm describing this properly). Soooooo...he undid the radiant heat, put new baseboard heaters in the kitchen and bath and so the heat went from the boiler on to all the rooms of the house. He said that should have the old baseboard heaters giving off more heat. If they are, it's a miniscule amount.

One zone and one circulator?

As I understand it, the pipes go from the boiler to the newish bedroom, then to the 2 new baseboard heaters in the kitchen and bath and then on to all the other rooms: living room, 2 more small bedrooms and a tiny office and the dining room and then back to the boiler. I don't think all the old baseboard heaters were checked for air. I will try to do that.

Do you have a basement, so you can check the connection of one old baseboard for me?Can the pipes be seen?

yeah, we still do not know what type system you have.
there are a number of different ways the rooms can be piped. not know what you have makes it impossible to diagnose a problem.

LOL...I think he's gone and run off...dang it!

There is one boiler and as I understand it, the hot water comes out of the boiler and goes through all the heaters and eventually back to the boiler. I imagine that would be one zone and one circulator. Yes, I have a basement and I can see the pipes. What do you want me to look for?

look for your camera..
take a couple of pictures of the piping around the boiler and try to show how the baseboard heaters connect to eachother.

ok

What ya thinkin packy.....The new stuff in series, into old monoflow? Someone probably replaced a B&G series 100 with a Taco 007.