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Hello. I just bought a new apartment in New York City. It is on the top floor of a 12 Story prewar co-op. It has 4 one-pipe steam radiators and there is a wide steam pipe in the bathroom that has a vent on the top of it.

When the boiler kicks on in the basement, two of the radiators start out operating normally hissing at about 45 db. Then after a few minutes they both get much louder to about 75db and do not stop hissing at 75 db for about ten minutes. One of the rooms gets heated to about 83 degrees with the door closed (it was about 20 outside). The other room heats to about 74, but it is much larger and the radiator is about half the size.

The third radiator hisses quietly at about 45db for a minute or so and then stops and that room heats to around 72 degrees. This one seems to be functioning normally.

I want to mainly get rid of the 75 db hissing and get the room currently heated to 83 down to a reasonable temperature. It seems like there is something wrong with the air vents. I have ordered some new air valves, (Heattimer Vari-Valve, Vari-Vent #1 Adjustable and Groton #4) but have been relying on info from Chat GPT. Should I go about installing these myself? Wanting to check in with some human beings before I begin this process for additional info- I have very limited info on this topic.

Sucking in air loudly for 2 or 3 minutes is not normal operation for a properly functioning steam system. This really should not be happening if your pressure is below 2 psi and or the vents are functioning properly.

Hi, I am the owner of a 100 year old home with a single pipe steam boiler system (a DIY homeowner) and live in northern NJ near Newark Airport. I have owned the home for 10 years now, with a natural gas powered Weil McClain boiler is 16 years and well maintained with cast iron single pipe radiators. This year during the annual PM before the heating season it was discovered the natural gas water column only showed 3.8 (without any other natural gas pulling in the house). So we had the Natural gas company come out, they changed the regulator and meter, now its 6.5 water column and with everything natural gas powered on in the house on high, its 5.8. So that is resolved. **There is 3rd floor in the house but no radiators up there, on the 3rd floor we have a mini split that does heat in the winter.

The steam pipes are all insulated in the basement but the walls of the house are not insulated except a couple of the rooms. Right now the heating runs pretty well in the house, I am overall happy. But I want to dial it in a little more, I have all the radiators pitched properly, and all very clean, but I want to focus now on changing the air vents on all them. Right now they are a mix of Gorton, Hoffman 1A adjustable and 1 maid-o-mist. I want to change them all to the Gorton, either 4, 5, 6, C, or D.

Also there is one large Gorton main steam valve in the basement, I have had two HVAC techs here this season, they said everything is looking and running good.

But the Hoffman's make some noise, after reading and researching this for the most part is 'normal' for a lot of folks. I am just looking to dial in the heat some more and get the heat as even as possible throughout the house.

I have a Ecobee premium thermostat with it configured and knowing I have a steam boiler, with it set with a 1 degree temp differential. I have it set to 69 degrees during the day (and I have 5 remote temp sensors (1 in each room) on 1st floor). At night, I have it set to 67, and I have 3 remote temp sensors (1 in each bedroom) on the 2nd floor).

I am attaching the floor plans for my house with the location and size of my radiators and where the boiler is in the basement in relative to the rooms/floors and a few other photos.

Please let me know if I can answer anything else or if I missed anything or was not clear in any of the explanations.

My goal of this post, is to get all of my radiators onto Gorton air vents, from what I read, I have a good idea already

of what # size Gorton vents I want to use on each radiator but I am looking for the experts here to help and see what you all suggest since you know better than me.

thanks in advance!!

Jonathan