Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with boiler

Help me turn on my radiator

jedicus — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:15:32 -0800

My radiator won't turn on. There are two essentially identical radiators in my apartment. One is working fine. The other won't turn on. The control for the radiator is a simple knob with 6 settings: off and 1-5. Regardless of the setting the radiator stays stone cold and there is no sound of steam. Apart from the control I have access to exactly one thing in the radiator, which you can see in this gallery.

I can turn the blue plastic tube, albeit with some difficulty. I have not tried more than a half turn or so in either direction. The white end piece, which connects by a bare metal wire to the control, is removable, as seen in the second picture. So, that's what I've got. How can I make this puppy go?

(Since this is an apartment I have no control over the boiler, but since my other radiator works I don't think the problem is with the boiler anyway.

I put in a maintenance request earlier today, but they never responded, and it's starting to get very cold in here (~60 degrees) even with the other radiator going full tilt, so I'd very much like to get this one going.)

To repair or to replace?

hjd — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:50:24 -0800

To repair or replace? Should I repair a boiler with renowned reoccuring faults or replace it with a new reliable boiler with a 5 year warranty? I am having issues with my boiler at the moment. It is an 8 year old Baxi 100HE and it's ignition is frequently locking out. It is a renowed fault with the Baxi range which I have read about in forums. The way to repair it involves calling out an engineer and perhaps having to pay for expensive parts to be replaced (not sure what the parts cost but on forums they were referred to as expensive). According to MoneySavingExpert.com boiler repairs and maintenance come to about £180 a year - but I guess if this boiler has a reoccuring fault it might be more, although of course I cannot be sure.

Do I sink money into this boiler by having it repaired and then perhaps regularly maintained after that, or invest in a new boiler by Viessman which I have read is reliable on forums and also comes with a 5 year warranty. This may cost about £1200 though for the boiler and the installation.

Cost wise they may end up amounting to the same over the 5 years based on conservative estimates, but since I do not have experience of hot water/heating systems on a long term basis I am not sure which is the most effective choice.

Also, even if the boiler is under warranty I suppose I will still have to have it serviced each year to ensure the warranty is not voided, so that would potentially be another £100 a year on top of the original £1200 installation.

Does anyone have any advice based on their own experience and knowledge?

Heat Miser

mkb — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:43:57 -0800

Our house (with a recently replaced boiler) doesn't get heat in every room. I thought I had figured out the cause, but I was wrong. We have a gas steam boiler installed about two years ago, and we live in Salem, Massachusetts.

The second floor of our house has four rooms: the office, the master bedroom, the bathroom, and the nursery. Each of these rooms has a radiator, and when each radiator is fully open and the heat is on, the radiators in the master bedroom and the office get warm while the other two rooms don't seem to have anything.

I think I had previously gotten heat in the other two rooms by closing the valve on the radiator in the office, making the office colder. However, when I did this last night, the radiator nursery still never got warm.

Is this a problem I could fix on my own? How could I investigate further? If not, is it expensive? If you're in the area, is there an HVAC person you could recommend?

Dismantle old boiler

allelopath — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:05:23 -0800

How to dismantle an old Boiler? We are replacing the boiler used for heating the house. We've taken it out, but it is very heavy and can't get it down the stairs. I am trying to take it apart. I removed a few parts, but it is still heavy. It looks like the vertical parts might be glued together (every alternate joint looks like a weld, but the others look like it they're glued.

Any ideas on how to take this thing apart?

A couple photos:
photo of boiler
close up of joints

Am I mistakenly assuming the worst about my landlord and my potentially shady gas bill?

midatlanticwanderer — Sat, 23 May 2009 11:37:34 -0800

Philly filter: Is my gas bill too high and/or is my landlord shady? We get charged a ton for "indirect" charges by a non-PGW company and must write our checks payable to the landlord, not the utility. I also pay the same amount every month, and am not enrolled in some budget plan that makes the amount due the same each month. Several residents (me included) think this is some sort of way for the landlord to rip us off. You can see three examples here (I've removed identifying information about myself).

You will notice that I pay $81.25 every month. After commiserating with others in this apartment complex, they also pay the same every month regardless of their actual usage (or non-usage). We have little to no ability to control the thermostat in the winter months. You'll see that the majority of gas usage each month is "indirect," meaning, according to the utility company: "the heat radiated from the shared boiler and the building heat distribution pipes... For residents that maintain the lowest thermostat settings during cold weather, and for many additional residents during mild months, the indirect heat allocation may be greater than the direct heat allocation" (see here).

My questions:
1. Is it fair to be charged so much for something over which we have no control? I fear the answer is yes, but this rubs many of us the wrong way since no matter what we do with the thermostat, we have no control of the heat in the winter months.
2. Is a CCF charge of $1.91 high? I paid $1.36 per CCF at my old apartment, when I did have PGW service (on a small furnace in my unit, not a boiler).
3. Is the adjustment/credit on my current bills which brings it down to $81.25 every month the result of some arcane regulation to ensure PA residents don't pay exorbitant utility costs, or is it a gimmick to make me feel like they're doing me a favor while still pocketing $81.25 every month?

Overall, the landlord has exhibited several other behaviors that are highly shady, unethical, or that just cut corners (e.g. one of my closets was painted shut when I moved in). Several other residents have experienced far worse. Several of us feel that something is up with these high gas bills when we have no control over the actual usage (we've tried -- I get heat in the winter no matter whether my thermostat is jacked up or all the way down). Furthermore, we must write our gas bill checks payable to the landlord, not the utility. This only increases our suspicion that we are being ripped off.

I know that at one point complaints were made to some authorities, but nothing has come of it. Apparently one new resident called PGW to try to turn on gas service, not knowing it was handled by this other company, and the PGW representative had some sort of difficulty sensing/finding our building in their database of possible properties.

Any insights are welcome, especially if I'm just overreacting about the difference between boilers and furnaces. It's just that the track record with this landlord has been bad in several other areas, so we have some reason to be suspicious.

Furnace repair in Vancouver?

Cosine — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:20:08 -0800

Furnace repair filter: Can any Mefites recommend someone for furnace repair in Vancouver? I hate posting local questions to Meta but I've had a nightmare of visits and revisits with one local plumbing and heating co for the past 3 weeks and the furnace still doesn't work right, can any recommend someone that they have experience with?

Get me hot: residential boiler info needed.

wordwhiz — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:30:29 -0800

Does my home really need a new boiler? How do I choose one? Where should I buy it? How much should I pay? My oil company just raised my monthly payment by over 50% ($288 -> 438) because last winter my oil usage soared for my 4-zone FHW system. Which is weird, since my house is only ~2000 sf. Yes, it's an old house (+/- 200 years) but it's not much older or bigger than it was last year! ;-)

Have you replaced a boiler (or furnace) lately? Any shopping tips, dire warnings, trenchant observations, before I shop? Can you recommend any brand names or models? Bonus points if you're a boiler repairman or expert. How much should I expect to shell out for this? Thanks in advance.

Oh, if you'd like to loan me a few grand to pay for it...

Whatr can I do to make the boiler & furnace inaccessible to my cats?

tastybrains — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 06:07:58 -0800

I'm looking for suggestions as to what I can do to keep the boiler & furnace in my house inaccessible to our cats, without closing up the actual room they are in. The boiler has some fluffy insulation around it that I can completely imagine my cats having a ball with. They are not bright. We've just bought a house and are in the process of sprucing & fixing some things up before we move in. There is a fairly large laundry/utility room where the boiler & furnace are located. We've decided that this room would be the best place for the litterbox, because the bathrooms are too small and there really aren't any other nooks that are out of the way.

However, I am really concerned about my cats vs. the boiler. It is partially wrapped in some fluffy insulation, and my cats love to claw and play with things with interesting textures. I'd like to find some way that is fairly inexpensive (<$200 would be ideal) and fairly easy to implement, to keep them from being able to access it.

One thought was baby gates, but I don't know if they can be stacked that high. I also thought of constructing something out of chicken wire, but I don't really know if that's the best way either.

What would you do?

Is my building going to kill me?

Afroblanco — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:02:07 -0800

My landlords turned on the heat in my building, and now my room smells funny. They say that it's nothing, but I'm kinda worried. Ever since they turned on the heat, there's this weird smell in my room. It smells kinda like burnt plastic, but a little different. I complained to the landlord's office, and the person who I spoke to said that others have reported the same smell. I was told that it's just "old water in the radiators," but that sounds kinda suspicious to me. I've never heard of old water in the radiators making a place smell funny.

(They also said that they put in a new boiler recently, although I don't know if that has anything to do with it.)

Is this something I should be worried about? If so, what should I do about it? The maintenance guy barely speaks english, and isn't much help at all. I wouldn't be surprised if the landlord just tried to brush me off again. Should I call the city or something?

Please help with my boiler

atrazine — Mon, 29 May 2006 04:23:40 -0800

What do status codes S.31 and S.36 indicate on a Vaillant ECOmax VUW 236 EH boiler? That's pretty much it. If you don't know, do you know where I could find out?