Help me

[Deleted User]

you're probably right Scott, but after years of scale/rust accumulation and settling of house/pipes. those ideal operating conditions are a thing of the past.

Short of rebuilding the whole system, avoiding set back conditons are probably her best/least expensive alternative.

When her radiators are coming out of a set back conditon, they are generating more condensate than the system was designed for. Slowing the steam through vent orificing might help, but it will still be an issues on cold restart, especialy with that deep of a set back. I'm betting that the primary reason she sets back at night is because she likes a cool sleeping environment, as evidenced by the fact that she doesn't turrn it down during the day.

Old pipes are like old people, they don''t work like they USED to...

Time to go fill my pipes with coffee.

Merry Christams my friend.

ME

Guest_5

Help me please

ITS DRIVING ME MAD!!!

Water hammer getter worse!

Supply valves are starting to leak (at first it was just one radiator) and spreading to 3 radiators now.

Had a recent pro came in to check and fix them but to no avail...

I read Dan's suggestions.
I lowered the pressure.
Flushed out the dirty water (and now water is getting dirty again after a week).
New air vents..
The pro's even checked the radiator pitch and said its fine.
Insulated the main.
New main vent.
ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG


Only thin I find problematic is the main vent is located on top of a nipple at the end of the main where it meets the return pipe.

I didn't check the water pH level yet, but aside from bad water chemistry, I am out of reasons to this maddening hammer.

IT IS LOUD!!!! Pipes are getting loose...I AM GOING MAD!!!
Gives me this creepy feeling of pipes bursting, boiler exploding. Heck, I even have nightmares of it.

And sometimes, the hammering goes away in a few seconds and at times, longer.

The pounding starts just when the radiators start to heat up...I dread the mornings when the thermo calls for heat.

/plops dead from the maddening.

ScottMP

Ling

IS this a one pipe steam system ?

If so, check the pitch of the mains. Are there hangers that have come loose ? If the mains are not pitched well, water will sit in the mains and bang on start up.

Also did you insualte the Whole main ? The whole thing needs to be insulated.

Scott

BY the way if there are two pipe going into the radiator then you have a bad steam trap somewhere.

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Guest_5

one-pipe

Its a 1-pipe system.

Thing is, the mains are not banging when I check...only the pipes near SOME of the rads are. And now i just checked, some of the new vents are spitting out water once in awhile..ARRGGGG

D107

Post What city and state you're in

It's possible the pro you had in was not experienced with steam systems. If you give the wall your location you might find a steam specialist easier.

Unknown

is Susan

Is Susan, the writer, writing this down for her novel?

Guest_5

Brooklyn, NY

And THANKS TO ALL for listening and replying back to my insane rant.

PS. During the day, no hammering in between cycles...hammering is the worst during the morning when it heats up from 60 (set for the night) to 66 for the morning rush...during the day, its set to 66-68 and only very minor rattling for a few sec. At night time when it gets colder, the BANGING comes back for a few thumps and all is quiet for the night until the morning.

I can hear the water cascading down the pipes back to the return pipe.

PPS. The loudest is between the 1st floor radiator feed pipe and the 2nd floor rads...

The radiator valves are leaking steam...sigh.

D107

check out matt sweeney in the 'find a professional' section of

this site. He is a great steam specialist on Long Island.

ScottMP

Ling

Matt would definalty be the guy !

By the way, how old is the boiler ? Sounds as if you ahve problems with the neaar boiler piping and your getting wet steam.

Scott

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[Deleted User]

Simple fix...

Don't let the system set back. If you want cooler rooms, invest the money in non electric vent valves with thermostatic operators on them and keep your bedroom and other unused rooms set cooler. The hammering you're hearing is normal for a cold start system. Once the system is warm, condensation production is minimal, and hammering stops.

Your old system wasn't really designed for deep set back and recovery, and it's telling you so...

If you want to save money on energy, spend it on insulation, stormwindows, caulking and maybe a tekmar control for your boiler, but the system wants to be kept hot.

Contacting Matt Sweeny or JohnNY would be money well spent. Experts are not always what they appear to be. In fact, the daffynition of an expert is as follows;

X (Ex) is the mathematic operator for the "unknown"

Spurt (pert) is a drip under pressure.

Therefore, an EXPERT is an unknown drip under pressure...

Good luck, and Merry Christmas

PS, as an experiment, try overiding the set back thermostat for 48 hours and see what happens, or DOESN'T happen in your case:-)

ME

Guest_5

Thanks all

Merry Christmas and I'll definitely give Matt Sweeney a call.

ScottMP

Mark

"The hammering you're hearing is normal for a cold start system."

Mark, I'm not sure I follow this, could you explain ?

We just replaced a large steamer that was down for three days. She never made a sound when we fired her up. MY thinking would be that a one-pipe system with properly ptched and insulated mains would have no water in the main and would have no hammering. Seems to me that a properly designed system would never have hammering.

What am I missing ?

Scott



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