Water – No water pressure in heating circuit

furnacegaswater-pressure

I have a natural gas hot water furnace and I can't get heat. First I turn up the temperature at the thermostat and I hear the furnace turn on, the supply line gets hot and half way down the line it stays cold. I tried getting the air out of the line but now I have no water pressure. I don't know if the pressure was at 0 before I even started.

Best Answer

It sounds like you fill valve is not properly set, or has failed. Do not run the furnace until you are sure the system (boiler shell, circulating pipes, and radiators) are completely filled with water.

If the water level in the boiler gets too low the system could be damaged. Boilers usually have a fuse plug that limits the damage if the water level fails, but that plug cannot be reset and is expensive to replace.

A typical circulating hot-water heating system has an automatic fill valve connected to the house water supply, which admits water to the system until the pressure rises to a preset level. (Usually the level is set to match the total height of the system.) This valve can become blocked by a tiny amount of shmutz in the supply line.

Sometimes you can clean and reset the automatic fill valve but sometimes you have to replace it.