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[Parks]

I recently bought a house with a Ridgewood 6000 wood furnace. The previous owner must have been preparing to take the stove with him, since the furnace water to air heat exchanger was disconnected from the system. I included the stove in the purchase though. I reconnected the furnace heat exchanger to the system, and lost a bit of water (probably 2-3 gallons) in the process. This got me thinking that I don't know how much water is in the system. Is there a way to check the water level? I have a jumper line with a valve running to the cold water line in my house for easy filling. I'm concerned with just opening the valve and letting the system fill, since this would pressurize the system a bit. Also, once it heats up it would pressurize it a lot. Does anyone have a recommendation on how to go about making sure I have a good level of water in the system?

[Scott7m]

It's not a pressurized system, fill it up til water is pouring out of the stove and your fine, it will push out what it dont need when it gets hot

[Parks]

So there is some type of opening in the water jacket that releases water if it is overfilled or pressure builds up? I assumed that it was a sealed system.

[automan77]

There is a small vent pipe on top next to the stack. It will overflow when it's full.  I have that same boiler

[Scott7m]

So there is some type of opening in the water jacket that releases water if it is overfilled or pressure builds up? I assumed that it was a sealed system.

Yep, just fill it up til it runs out

[Parks]

Thanks a lot guys. I wondered what that pipe was.

[slimjim]

Parks, get thier phone #s you are going to want to talk to these guys a bit in the process, please keep us all posted

[Speed]

Also, there is a vent in the top of the sight glass. As stated, fill till its blowing out the top, and it will be bleeding out sight glass, also. It will keep doing that till it reaches 180°. It will stop when its happy.

[Chas]

I also have Ridgewood. If it's much more than a year old it doesn't have a sight glass. I know a guy with an older one and he made a level indicator with a piece of fishing pole and some type of ball for a float on the end. He put it down the vent pipe and put marks on the pole part so he could watch the level.