Next, I need to rehab this website so these stupid casino messages disappear. That’ll be later on today. If you don’t see casino blah blah blah comments all over the site, then you’ll know it’s gone. Jay Allen has a product for Movable Type called MT-Blacklist which de-crufts your website and prevents it from being crufted again. Whee!

I need to figure out how to get pictures posted. It just stopped snowing in Chicago, and it is beautiful.

Now, I was ready to bleed my radiators. And it went well, at first. Then, I was puzzled. I did the first ones, they hissed some air, and eventually made with the goods: some clear water running in a stream. This boy was ecstatic. I moved on to radiator #3, in the living room, which had hot feet, warm ankles, and nothing warm on the rest of it. I turned the valve, PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT air came out. Then… nothing. No water, no more hissing air. I thought the system should recover for the lost pressure by putting in more water, but it was a no go. At least, immediately. Over the past few days I have been cranking the keys at intervals, letting out what air is pressurized in each of the two radiators which do this. They puff out some air, wheeze a little, and then I close them back up.

Either there’s a ton of air in this system ‘cause it’s never been bled, or it’s just seriously whacked. I can’t seem to find any devices to remove air from the system.. the name of that thing escapes me right now, but it should be by the overflow tank. Anyway, I think I know how to bleed system #2, as well, which is the downstairs non-valved system. We’ll see. I’d like to avoid blowing up myself/my house/my family.

Finally, tested the phone line and realized it was the phone, not the line, which was dead.

Now is has stopped snowing. It’s so pretty, but I have so little time to shovel sidewalks!

So far, no matter what else has to happen in the house, I have dedicated 1.5 hrs, minimum, each night to labelling pipes as far as what they do, and where they go. Three nights into the process, I still have not found my water main, though I know where many other things lead. This could be considered bad, especially since we replaced a toilet downstairs without the benefit of this knowledge. One stripped screw and we’d have had a swimming pool in the basement.

Most importantly, I have figured out how all the radiators hook together, and I think I know how to control them, now. If that is the case, bleeding the system and the individual radiators should be pretty easy. I’ll find out if that is the case tonight. In the meantime, I’ve had great luck searching the internet and compiling tips.

Particularly helpful have been:
making a radiator reflector
and maintaining radiators

Do you know of any good links? Do you know anyone who lives in Ravenswood Manor, Chicago, IL who knows where their water main is?