Originally Posted by
.429&H110
I have repaired many hydronic baseboards in many frozen houses.
Would be more fun if it wasn't such an emergency, screaming housewives, barking dogs...
The following is general, but one cold night I soldered up four houses just like this.
If my company ran you out of oil on automatic delivery, this was all free of charge.
In any case, your carpet is not my problem, unless I set it on fire.
Walk in the front door, heat's off, 40F in the house.
Fire the old boiler up and a zone will be caught, won't circulate frozen.
Turn up all the thermostats I want the boiler running showing pressure, whole house heating.
If I can't run the boiler, game over, plan B.
Infrared thermometer leads me to the furthest bedroom from the woodstove.
The drapes are over the heater, cold pouring out zeroF.
If the system has any glycol in it, a hairdryer will warm it enough to flow.
A 1500W hairdryer is safer than a 1500W heatgun, hairdryer moves more air.
Walmart hairdryers are cheaper, too. Heatguns set cat hair and carpet fuzz on fire for a bad smell...
If its water frozen it's split, stop off the zone (got stops?) and pack the wound with towels.
If you do not have stops on both ends of each loop, this is when you will get them.
And I have to stop the boiler to do so. Time is money and it's cold out.
I carried lots of parts, good sale items. Some were purge stops very handy things.
If you have a circulator, go buy a spare. Boss got a silly price for mine.
I can usually solder wet pipe without a steam explosion. Just let out the steam.
Needle nose plier off the fins until you can caliper 7/8"
Cut out the split; solder in slip coupling and drain coupling, the drain lets out the steam.
For a small split I might solder in a union but baseboard really won't stretch.
I might sell some new baseboard, but the stuff is expensive, depends.
I usually carried an 8' and leftovers, but Boss thought truckstock was like gold.
Purge air, away we go. Great place to sell some propylene glycol.
2AM in January is a poor time to service a boiler. Any day in August works better for my sleep habits.
Keep the draperies off the heaters and remember the wood stove fools the thermostat.
I did my best work after midnight.