Getting Your Boiler Ready for a Vaughan Winter
Boilers are quiet workhorses, which is exactly why they get ignored until the first cold night. A few checks in the fall save a lot of no-heat calls in January.
Check the system pressure
Most residential hydronic systems run at about 12 to 15 psi cold, a bit higher when hot. Look at the gauge on the boiler. If it’s sitting near zero, the system is losing water somewhere or the fill valve isn’t doing its job. If it climbs toward 30 psi when hot, the expansion tank may be waterlogged and the relief valve could start dripping.
Listen for air
Gurgling or rushing water in the baseboards or rads usually means air in the lines. Bleeding the radiators (top floor last) often fixes it. If the air keeps coming back, there’s a leak or a failed air separator, and that’s worth a service call.
Know your safety devices
- Low-water cutoff: shuts the burner off if the water level drops. It should be tested yearly.
- Pressure relief valve: a drip from the discharge pipe is a warning sign, not a normal thing.
- Venting: high-efficiency boilers vent through PVC or polypropylene. Check outside that the intake and exhaust are clear and not blocked by snow or a bush.
Noises worth calling about
Banging (kettling) usually means scale or sludge on the heat exchanger, often in older systems with hard water. A whining or grinding circulator pump is near the end of its life. Short-cycling, where the burner fires for a minute and shuts off, can point to an oversized boiler or a bad sensor.
What a boiler service includes
We clean the burner and heat exchanger, check combustion with an analyzer, inspect the condensate trap and neutralizer on condensing models, test the safeties, and look at the expansion tank and pump. On combi boilers we also check the domestic hot water side.
If your boiler is showing a fault code, our boiler not heating guide covers the common ones. For service or replacement, see our boiler services page or contact us at 647-657-2977. We’re based in Vaughan and work across the GTA.
