Heating 101 no heat on second floor some heat on first

[diplomat 1]

Well since u guys helped me with my central air problems I figured u guys know how heating too. We bought the house last year in January and at that time all the heating was working. Now that it's time to use it again I'm having problems. I will try to explain as best as I can. The house has 3 floors each with its own thermostat. I also have 1 separate thermostat on the top floor for my central air. What I did was turn the switch on the thermostat for the central air to "heat" which I don't think does anything. Then I turned all 3 floor thermostats to 70 and the only one that seems to be working is the 1st floor heat but only in certain baseboards not all of them on the first floor work. The second floor I got no heat and where and same in basement. I went to the water heater/boiler room to try n bleed the system but it seems like there is no water in system. Here are some pics to show u my system.


https://s22.postimg.org/mylyda4vl/image.jpg
https://s22.postimg.org/p4g97s8c1/image.jpg
https://s22.postimg.org/4ycr8wcoh/image.jpg

The 3rd picture what seems to be going into the house and those 2 pipes are very hot so that seems good but when you look at the first picture on the pipe all the way on the left is hot. The middle one is cold and the right one is semi warm. I close the valve on the bottom of each pipe then I open the valve to try and let water out and the middle one had some water but the right one didn't have a lot. I am confused how does heat work on some parts of the same floor and not others? Why does it seem like there no water in the system? Any help would be appreciated thanks

 

[aar_man]

Hot water system. Gas or coal
How is the house zoned? Do you have radiation on all three floors plus the basement?
From the photo I see 3 circulators. The last photo I see 3 flow control valves(green) and the expansion tank(gray).
On the boiler there should be a gauge with 2 needles. One is system pressure, the other is water temp.
Why do you think there is no water in the system...You don't want to be firing the boiler if it is dry. Was the system opened for any reason or drained to change out a fitting/circulator/etc?

 

[aar_man]

By your descriptions, I'm going to guess that you have only been around forced air heating systems. No worries, welcome to the world of hydronic heat.
Start with the basics.
The thing in the basement that heats the water is a boiler. When you heat water, it expands. The gray cylindrical tank is an expansion tank.
You should see a main supply line coming out of the top of the boiler and the expansion tank should be plumbed into that line. Then the supply line will have zones that pull off of it. Usually, there is a flow control valve at each zone(green) that act as a guard for the zones. Hot water will circulate by gravity(think ferriswheel hot water rises,cold water falls) if you don't prevent it. On top of each flow control valve is a little lever. If you have a power outage and loose your circulators, flip that lever to allow the gravity circulation to occur so you can have some heat in the home.
From the flow control valve the hot water goes out to each floor and then returns to the boiler and enters the bottom of the boiler. But how does it circulate? Enter the pump.
Your system looks like it has a circulator on each zone. The circulator gets it's marching orders from a relay box usually mounted up in the floor joists. The circulator relay box is what your thermostat wire for each zone connects to. When your thermostat calls for heat, it sends a signal to the relay which then applies 120V to the circulator. When the thermo has enough, it breaks the power which stops the circulator.
Looking at your circulators, see that line coming in. It has a domed valve with a bail/handle on the top. That is the supply from the city/well to add water to your system.
Digest that and let me know if I can help.

 

[aar_man]

Back to your question. It sounds like the system is air bound. Air in the lines prevents the water from circulating. Depending on where the air is, one loop could semi-work to a point and the others circuits are cold as the water can't circulate.
One other thing to check is that your circulators are working. The impeller inside the pump can freeze-up from non-use over the spring/summer/fall period. Not sure of your circulator type but the grundfos pumps on my system have a small external cover you can remove to access the impeller. A simple twist with a small screwdriver is all that is required to free-up the impeller.

 

[diplomat 1]

Morning guys thanks for the response. Its an oil heating system not gas. The 3 floors includes the basement and by radiation what do u mean? Only some of the baseboards on first floor work. I have hot water and I hear the water heat cycle on and off. I looked at some videos and got an idea on how the water runs. It looks like the 2 pipes that are going into the baseboard are hot to the touch but the return lines only the 1st floor is hot. The other ones are not. I feel like the circulatory might not be working as they should because the circulatory are hot but if I follow the pipe it gets colder the further away from the circulator. I will check the impeller is there a pic of the cover? It's just confusing because Ihave hot pipes going into the house but the return pipes are cold except the 1st floor. I open the valves on the return pipes that are cold and no water comes out. I will check the impellers and get back to you guys thanks

 

[Thumper68]

There should be air bleeders on each radiator with the boiler running open each one and see if air comes out, if it does leave open until water drips out then close and go to next rad and repeat. You might have to do this several times over several days to get all the air out of the system.

Also make sure that the make up water valve is open and new water can get into the system.