Thursday, February 18, 2016

Furnace issues, February 18, 2016

We have baseboard heat in this house, forced hot water circulation. Over the past few days the pipes have been making a banging sound as hot water is pumped into them. Last night I traced the banging to the circulator pump, which was last replaced ten or fifteen years ago. We talked about maybe calling in someone to take a look at it next week during my days off.

No such luck. The circulator pump quit working this afternoon. We have someone working on it now. Fortunately it is covered by a service plan.

There may be some maintenance that can be done to prolong the life of the pump. If there is, I'll include the instructions here so I can reference them in the future.


UPDATE: This new pump is a sealed pump. No maintenance required. But the guy did show me that one valve that was supposed to be open was shut. This caused the water level circulating through the system to gradually drop, resulting in gurgling and flowing water sounds.


2 comments:

Shayne Gustafson said...

Good thing the pump is covered by a service plan. It could have cost you a ton of money in repairs, both parts and service, if it hadn't been. Oh, the "joys" of home ownership! Seems to me that getting 10 or 15 years from that pump was pretty good.

Unknown said...

I have always considered baseboard heat a good option for keeping a room warm. If this is the first time you have had that sort of problem since you had the system installed, it may certainly be a good option. If the sealed pump works as it should, you should not have any further problems with that particular aspect of the system.

Dennis Cannon @ Laird & Son