When your home has a boiler furnace for heat, it's important that you recognize when there's a problem with the system. Between your regular maintenance appointments and learning how to identify issues, you can keep your boiler heater working as it should or deal with situations when it isn't working properly. 

For example, if you have air pockets in the radiator lines, your boiler furnace won't heat your home efficiently. Here's a look at what you need to know about air pockets in the water lines of your boiler.

Signs Of Air Pockets In Your Boiler

The first step toward addressing and repairing air in your boiler system is understanding the signs that air is present. Although some boiler furnace problems can be hard to detect sometimes, air in the boiler lines is easy to identify if you know what to look for.

When there's air in the water lines of your boiler heating system, you will notice that the radiators heat unevenly. You might find that one radiator is cooler on one end than it is on the other or you have specific radiators that just aren't heating up much at all. The uneven heating occurs because the air pockets disrupt the heated water flow.

You may also hear ticking, knocking, rattling, and similar unusual noises coming from your boiler. These noises, including popping sounds as well, are usually created by the combination of the air pockets and bubbles popping in the water.

Addressing Air Pockets In Your Boiler

To eliminate air pockets in your boiler heating system, you need to bleed your radiator system. Your heating services technician can teach you how to bleed the radiators. You'll have a special key that will open the bleeding valve on the radiators, and you'll have to bleed those radiators in a certain order to ensure that you're driving the air to the end of the line and completely out of the system.

If, however, bleeding the radiators doesn't fix the problem, that's a key indication that there's a leak in the system somewhere. Anything that lets air in the lines can let water out, which will disrupt your water pressure in the system and can cause your boiler to work inefficiently.

You'll need to work with a heating repair technician to trace the lines and find the vulnerability. That way, he or she can patch it and eliminate the air in the system. Then, the water bladder may need to be filled to ensure adequate pressure in the system for your boiler to work as it should.