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I recently bought a Cape Stye house and it is equipped with a Weil McLain Series 1 Boiler. The boiler is up and running fine except it is only heating the first floor; the base board radiators upstairs doesn't get hot, I opened the bleeding valve on each radiator to see if air/water is circulating, and they both bled for awhile with hissing sounds and water gushing out.

The day after I re-opened back the bleeding valves on the radiators upstairs and nothing comes out, as if the boiler isn't pumping water to the radiators upstairs, so thats when I took a pause and decided to get help. Could there be frozen lines upstairs or anything else on the radiator side that's preventing the circulation?

Thanks in advance Guys.

PS. (Both Zones/Floors are connected to a T pipe on the boiler).

Updated with Zones and Circulation pump. enter image description here

Update 2: Picture of the backfill and automatic/manual feeder? enter image description here

UPDATE: Sorry for the late reply, It checked out to be frozen pipes. The weather went up to 60 degrees last week, I went to feel the upstairs zone's pipes and it was hotter than normal; I then went upstairs and I could feel the heat coming from the base board heaters as I was walking up. That made me very happy haha. Thank you guys for all the input.

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  • Frozen pipes are indeed a possibility. So is a circulation pump not runninb, if you have a pump per zone ... which could then lead to frozen pipes, of course.
    – keshlam
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 21:23
  • Thanks @keshlam - I updated the Post with a photo of the T zone that leads to upstairs and downstairs, along with the Circulation pump. In regards to your statement, we installed a new Circ pump. :/
    – andre3wap
    Commented Feb 15, 2016 at 22:04
  • Air in the line?
    – Yehuda_NYC
    Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 0:10

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You could have a frozen pipe (actually, it would take two in this case to completely isolate the upstairs bleeders.) You might not. Don't know the layout of your pipes...

Circulation pump does not need to be running for bleeding. System pressure alone should suffice for bleeding. "Hissing" when you bled before sounds like trapped air. When you start to get water mixed in, close the bleeder, wait a few minutes and re-open. You should eventually get just water, no hiss, no bubbles.

I'm going to suspect that you have low pressure in the system, so air is not being forced out the top bleeders by water pressure in the system. You should have a pressure gauge (often on the same face as a temperature gauge) on the boiler - what does that read? Normally it should be 20-30 PSI. You may need to add water.

If you can't sort it out yourself, call for professional help sooner rather than later, as letting the system freeze can result in considerable expense.

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  • Thanks alot. I updated my question with a photo of the backfill + refill valve, I am assuming that I should lift the Lever on the Refill valve in order to add water to the system? - In a case where water is sufficient in the system, and it's low on pressure, how do I add more pressure ? Thanks for your time. If I cant figure it out I will call a professional as you suggest.
    – andre3wap
    Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 0:59
  • Lifting the lever on the fill should add pressure (from your water supply pressure.) If you have lots of air in the system you may need to bleed and fill several times - also, as the new water is heated and circulated it will release some dissolved air, and that will also need to be bled out.
    – Ecnerwal
    Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 1:04
  • Ok cool, I will give it a try tomorrow morning. Hopefully everything works out, if not I will higher a contractor to come in. I will update you guys once I get some result. Thanks again for your time.
    – andre3wap
    Commented Feb 16, 2016 at 1:08
  • Sorry for the late replies, It checked out to be frozen pipes. The weather went up to 60 degrees last week, I went to feel the upstairs zone's pipes and it was hotter than normal; I then went upstairs and I could feel the heat coming from the base board heaters as I was walking up. That made me very happy haha. Thank you guys for all the input.
    – andre3wap
    Commented Feb 23, 2016 at 14:30

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