Bleeding Air Follow up question

I have an columbia emerald EM-100 boiler. This season i have run the system and the noise coming from the is unbearable. It seems that I have a lot of air in the lines, however after reading another posting about bleeding lines I have discovered that my original installer did not put in bleeder valves so that i could remove the air from the system. Is my only course of action to install a taco bleeder or do I have another alternative to bleeding the lines of air?

 

I think the first thing to do is to check the pressure gauge on the boiler. You may not have enough water in the system to start with.

So, take a look at the gauge when the boiler is cool (room temp) and again when the boiler is HOT , and let us know what readings you get.

Pictures of the system might also help... you can set up a free account at Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket and upload them there, come back here to drop a link to your album. The more pics the better, let us see all the valves etc, and make sure to take some from a distance back so we can see how the pipes are connected.

 

The furnace pictures link is posted below for photo bucket. The furnace shows 190 degree / 13psi at rest then 198 degrees and 17 psi when hot
I hope this helps in addressing my issue.
Pictures by dtodd29 - Photobucket

If i can answer any other questions please let me know.

Thanks again

 

Confused...

Is there a typo here?

" 190 degree / 13psi " ... 190 isn't a cool boiler!

Turn the boiler off and let it cool to like 70 or 80, and tell us what the pressure is at that point. You won't have hot water to the home at this point, so be sure everyone has had their showers first!

I would also like to know what the settings on the aquastat are... that's the gray box on the front of the boiler, below the pressure gauge. There is a single screw on one side of that box, AFTER turning off the power to the boiler, loosen that screw, and slide the cover straight off. There are three dials inside there, HIGH, LOW, and DIFF. Tell us the settings on those three dials.

Is the domestic hot water supply in the home adequate?

The reason I'm asking all this is because there may be some simple maintenance items that you can take care of at the same time... such as checking the expansion tank, etc...

The upside is that you have the correct valves near the ceiling for purging air out of the system, but we'll get to that in a bit, after we check some other things...

In the 'furnace 2' pic, the red expansion tank is screwed into a red hunk of iron. That is your 'air scoop', and on top of that is a small can with a tire valve cap on top of it. That is your 'automatic air vent'.

Is that tire cap on top screwed down tight? It shouldn't be. It needs to be loose to allow the air that is caught to escape. If when you loosen that cap, you get water leakage, then that can needs replaced. It appears that it has been leaking as evidenced by the streaks below it...

 

Mr. Moderator, please feel free to delete this post if you believe it is too basic.

We do not use bleeder valves in radiators. Each zone has a ball valve at both the begining of the loop and at the end of the loop at the boiler. There are also drain cocks at one end of the boiler loop.

To bleed (one loop at a time), close off the other loops. Attach a hose to the drain valve on the loop being bleed and close the ball valve that is between the drain valve and the boiler. Open the other ball valve and open the drain valve. The system will force water to flow around the loop and purge the air. Flow rate can be controlled with the pressure reducer that feeds raw water into the boiler.

Foggy