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It seems like at least this plumber specified a gordon main valve in his quote and didn't put that in. A cheap main vent will fail early correct? I paid for quite a bit of this on my credit card. If he refuses to change the main vent or doesn't respond, I could get a quote from a better steam guy, and contest the amount of that quote against the original plumbers charge on my credit card. Unless people in this group think this is a bad thing to do. I texted the plumber who put in the bad main vent once already about this and he has so far not responded. I will continue to ask him to make it right but I may have to go the credit card route.

He's probably done with you. If he specced a Gorton and put in that thing then yes, that was bad practice on his part. If you do a chargeback, you'll never have him as a plumber again (which might be a good thing). The Gorton would cost him about $45, the one he put on was probably under $20.

To me that's "walk away money" but maybe not to you, I can't choose for you.

For perspective I have a 150 year old house with a 44 year old Peerless boiler. I go through about an inch of water on the site glass per month during the coldest month of the year.

I topped it off a week ago before this cold spell and it has barely budged, maybe a quarter inch?

It is working its butt off right now, but keeping the house warm at 68 degrees.

12 seconds!?!

How low on the glass is it after 1 day?

@dannyg40 If it ain't broke...

That boiler will probably outlast us all.

No, don't believe I'm losing water (unless of course its a real problem and it just happened to start). I have been watching it closely since the main vent failed.

Those street elbows don't have full-size 1/2" passageways. This can slow the venting rate. I'd change them to regular elbows and short nipples.

I'm still confused as to whether:

1. You know what main vent size you needed which requires an estimate of the total mains length and pipe size and:
2. Whether relative to the water loss you went around and did what @ethicalpaul asked in the last thread:
   
   To see if vents are working, you set up a long call for heat, like make the system have to gain like 5 degrees. Then you run around to all the radiators to see if they are filling with steam. That tells you the vent is letting air out like it should.

Then you keep running around to all the radiators until they start to completely fill up with steam all the way to the vent. When steam gets to a vent and makes it "steam hot" the vent should close and not allow any steam to escape. You can hold a spoon in front of the little hole in the vent to see if it's letting out steam.

Also check the valve (note the difference between a steam vent, and the radiator's valve that has a handle on it) to see if it is leaking, hissing, or dripping.

You don't want to see any hissing, fogging of the spoon, or dripping anywhere because you should only be having to add like a gallon per month to these boilers.

No doubt to me if Gorton is spelled out in the quote a Gorton should be installed. I assume based on your boiler size maybe a #1 is enough but perhaps it should be a #2 (much more expensive).

In addition to the fogging on a spoon or mirror just your phones flashlight can help pickup steam release. Just make sure the last section and vent are steam hot and that the boiler is still firing when you pass judgment on the vent.