QUESTIONS & ANSWERS from "Ask-the-Wizard":

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM:

Alice:

PLEASE NOTE: water in a hot water system can be scalding hot. You need to be very careful working around your hot water system to keep yourself from being burned. If you are un-sure what you are doing, you should contact a trained professional.

Newer hot water systems typically have a diaphragm-type expansion tank, which is sealed, so it's not necessary to drain it. However, from time to time, these types of tanks need the air inside them pressured up. Older hot water systems typically have conventional expansion tanks that should be flushed out annually. You can recognize a conventional expansion tank because they will have two valves around them: a shutoff valve going to the furnace; and a drain valve on the bottom of the tank.

Here is the procedure for draining a conventional type expansion tank. First, close the shutoff valve that goes to the furnace. Position a bucket under the drain valve on the bottom of the tank. If you cannot position a bucket underneath the drain, then you can attach a garden hose to the drain, and run the other end of the hose to a bucket. Once the bucket is in place, then open the drain valve. The water should flow out, but if it doesn't, it may be necessary to use a wrench to open the vacuum-breaker plug (not all tanks have this plug) on the drain valve. After the tank has been drained, close the drain valve and vacuum-breaker plug; then re-open the shutoff valve going to the furnace.

Once again, if you have any concerns about doing this procedure safely, you should contact a professional heating contractor.

Hope this is helpful.

Regards,
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from "Bobby": 

Why has my gas boiler started to blow back?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM:

Bobby:

If your gas boiler has started to blow back, you should have it inspected by a trained professional RIGHT AWAY. The problem could be due to items such as a bad burner, blocked exhaust piping, etc. But you should have a trained service technician do a thorough inspection.

In the meantime, you need to be very careful of poisonous carbon monoxide gas that could be created from incomplete combustion or leaking exhaust gas. Make sure that your carbon monoxide detectors in your house are working properly, and that your boiler area is well ventilated until you can get a service person to inspect your boiler. Which you should do as soon as possible.


Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from "perkybob": 

Why my electric furnace makes noise when it is turned off.  Could it be a stuck or noisy relay or what?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM:

Dear perkybob:

What type of noise is it?

Does it sound like "creaking metal"? Or a motor turning? Or is it a "whooshing" sound?

Or how would you describe the sound that you are hearing after your furnace turns off?

Regards,
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from "Kenneth": 

I notice that my low water light will come on sometimes and my furnace will not heat up the house even though the water level show sufficient amount of water. But when I flush out the water and reestablish the water level the furnace will kick in and the baseboards will began to heat up again. It does not happen often but sometime I have to flush water out more than usually when the water light come on I would like to note that I do not have an auto feed and that every once in a while I would have to fill and flush water out of the furnace. Could this be from a build up of rust in the pipes that cause the low water indicator to come on and shut the furnace? If so can this be clean out other then continuing to draining and flush water out of the furnace ?What do you think is causing this to happen. Your information is greatly appreciated.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM:

Dear Kenneth:

Yes, your problem with the your furnace shutting down could be caused by rust and sediment affecting your low water level cut-off gauge.

If the boiler and the low water cut-off gauge are not flushed of sediment, the low water cutoff could hang up on the sediment. You should follow the appropriate procedure for your particular furnace system to drain and flush your boiler. And as part of your annual inspection and service, a trained service technician should take the low water cutoff apart to manually scrape and clean the walls of it, and to also clean the sight glass.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from "Kenneth":  

Dear Home-Wizard,
The explanation you gave me for my furnace yesterday is right on point the sediment in the glass and water level gauge is just as you describe. I will have a technician come to clean it out.
Thank you very much.
Kenneth

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM:

Dear Kenneth:

Thanks for the feedback!

Glad that we could help you with this.

If you have other home maintenance questions come up, just let us know.

Regards,
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from joew on 3/31/2008:

My boiler (steam heat) is always getting too much water causing radiators to overflow.I fill per sight glass,could water feed valve be faulty .

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 3/31/2008:

Dear joew:

Have you tried testing the pressure and operation of your auto-feed valve?

Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from joew on 3/31/2008:

My boiler (steam heat) is always getting too much water causing radiators to overflow.I fill per sight glass,could water feed valve be faulty .

FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from joew on 3/31/2008:

The boiler is not fed with a auto fill,I manually have to feed it to proper level.Then it gradually overflows radiators.Would a new shut off solve the problem? I cant think of any other way the boiler is getting water .THANKS

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 3/31/2008:

Dear joew:

Before you replace your make-up water valve, one other thing to check is your expansion tank on your system.

When a hot water heating system heats up, the water in the system expands, and since it is a closed system, this expanded volume of water has to go somewhere. This is why hot water radiator heating systems have an “expansion tank” that accommodates this additional water volume. If there is a problem with your expansion tank, the water possibly has nowhere to go except out your radiator.

So you might want to check your expansion tank before you replace your water make-up valve. And remember, the water in your system is VERY HOT, so please be careful.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from joew on 3/31/2008:

I have steam heat.Is there an expansion tank?Thanks again.Joe W

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 3/31/2008:

Dear JoeW:

Here's a link to an article on how to troubleshoot an expansion tank in a steam heating system:

http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-troubleshoot-a-hot-water-and-steam-distribution-system1.htm

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Seattle house owner on 3/27/2008:

Our furnace backed up/got clogged while we were out, and when we returned, there was soot and smoke EVERYWHERE. We shut off the furnace, and a professional will come fix the problem, but what do we do meanwhile to help clean out the house? We will have carpet cleaners and maids come out, but is the residue toxic or carcinogenic?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 3/27/2008:

Dear "Seattle house owner":

Sorry to hear about your furnance problem. What a mess.

Regarding your question about the toxicity of the soot that is now throughout your house, unfortunately, this is beyond our expertise.

However, what I might suggest is that you contact your insurance company and ask them for a recommendation for a list of specialists in this area (typically their policies are not to recommend any one in particular, but they should have a list of preferred professionals). A home insurance company of course deals with this kind of problem all of the time, and I personally had a similar situation to yours, and found my insurance company to be very helpful in finding an expert.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Donna Croswell on 5/11/2008:

My mother-in-law has been turning her oil furnace off and on a couple of times a day in order to save on her oil bill. Should she be doing this? Her furnace is at least 30 years old.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 5/12/2008:

Dear Donna:

No, I would not recommend that your mother-in-law turn her furnace off and on several times a day in an attempt to say energy.

Assuming that her house is thermostatically controlled, then the thermostat (or thermostats if she has more than one) will turn the furnace on and off as needed to keep her house at her desired temperature, that is, the temperature where she has set her thermostats. As such, there is no reason for her to manually shut down the furnace.

If her interest is in lowering her energy bill, I would suggest that she looks at the Energy Saving Tips in the online Maintenance Library of Home-Wizard.com: 

http://www.home-wizard.com/maintenance/energysavingstips.asp

In addition, I would suggest that she also looks at Energy Savings section of Home-Wizard.com:

http://www.home-wizard.com/EnergySavings.asp, 

which will show the routine maintenance tasks that will help her save energy for her particular home.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from jim t cuff on 5/20/2008
I have an oil-fired furnace/with hot water baseboard for my ranch house. I am quite handy, and would like to vaccume out the soot from the inner furnace. is their any special type vaccume/shop-vac i need to use and bag. thanks jim
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ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 5/20/2008
Dear Jim:

For difficult jobs where you need strong suction, like vacuuming out a sooted up oil burning furnace, I would suggest that you look at the "Sootmaster" furnace vacuum:

http://www.cgfproducts.com/prod5frame.htm#01

I've heard some good things about the DeWalt DC500 vacuum:
http://www.dewalt.com/us/products/tool_detail.asp?productID=6220

But I've heard many complaints about the Stinger brand vaccum.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from jim t cuff on 5/20/2008

I have a regular 3 gallon sears wet/dry vac could i use that? thanks

jim
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ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 5/20/2008
Jim:

The main concern that I would have with using a small Craftsman wet/dry vacuum for vacuuming out soot from a oil-fired furnace is that the filter system may not be fine enough to keep the soot from coming through and making a mess in your house. I've heard of cases where the tiny soot particles got churned up in the air and actually setting off the fire detectors in the home.

Part of the reason that the bigger (and unfortunately more expensive) furnace vaccums have more suction power, is so they can force the air through the finer filtering system.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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