Baby steps in repairing neglected one-pipe steam system

Pete_18

They are brand new Varivent Heat-timer vents set to max open capacity which I picked specifically for their high venting capacity (per the e-book they will vent even better than a Gorton D). I have also tried Gorton D's on them. It doesn't appear to be a radiator venting issue since there is no difference in how these two radiators heat even with the vent removed.

Pete_18

The new boiler chamber is now installed.

The old one was absolutely disgusting and had 25 years of soot in it - the back wall had collapsed partially in which was causing the fire to bounce off of it (I'm sure this couldn't have been good for trying to produce steam).

Strangely enough, now that there is a new boiler chamber, there no longer appears to be a water hammer banging away to the left of the boiler where some of the near-boiler piping design is questionable. The system has run quiet through 3 cycles so far.

Every radiator in the house with the exception of 2 are heating very well during the cycle. At least one of the two that are not heating like it should is not towards the end of the main.

Radiator 1 not heating well (first section gets 'warm', not hot, no other sections even get warm) seems to get steam earlier than some of the others that are heating much better. (The valve heats up nice and hot earlier than some of the others in the house). No matter how long the cycle runs, the radiator doesn't want to get warmer than lukewarm on one section. From what I can tell, this radiator appears to be pitched properly.

Radiator 2 ( the only one on the 3rd floor ). This one heats up alright, but it doesn't heat up anywhere near as much as the other radiators. As a result, this room remains much colder than the rest of the house.

System is no longer short cycling (Last cycle lasted ~31 minutes and thermostat is only needing to kick on every 2-3 hours)

Gorton 2 main vents are present.

All second and third floor radiators now have good vents (Gorton, Varivents on most).

No noticeable difference with these particular radiators with the vents removed.

Next major item to do as mentioned last week is to redo the near boiler piping, but I'm trying to determine if there is anything else to do in troubleshooting these particular radiators first.

Steamhead (in transit)

Check the vents on those rads

betcha they're either clogged or too small.

"Steamhead"

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thfurnitureguy_2

Pete, are all of your radiators dripped to a wet return? Do any share a dry return? do your mains drip independently into a wet return?