Over firing??

brad_22

I can go from cold radiators to hot in under ten minutes.
It takes about 3 min to get the mains hot. ( I need to insulate some parts of them. The basement gets warm.)
The stack temp on his testing was about 350 degrees.
Both my mains have gorton vents. I believe they are the smaller #1. I have a honeywell pressure box set at
.5 with a 1.5 diff.
I appreciate your comments.

brad_22

Overfiring

Fellas,
I had my boiler tuned up this morning. Its a peerless steam, one pipe system. The mechanic said that it had a big fire and was at its maxium. I asked him if we should downsize the nozzle a bit and he said that would cause the boiler to run longer.
If the boiler is overfiring, would this cause steam to develop to quickly,would this cause hissing i am experiencing in some far radiators?

Brad White_2

Firing Rate

The higher firing rate will make steam faster (more BTU's in, all things being equal, will do that). Lowering the firing rate will lower the output somewhat but of course you do not want to go so low that you cannot get it above a simmer....you can burn a lot of fuel and not see steam. I have seen this (coupled with a few other factors).

The pros do proper combustion testing and if seriously over-fired, I can see you having an elevated stack temperature. They can tell you far better than I could.

Now, the hissing? That tells me that your vents are under-sized and/or your mains are not well-vented and/or your pressure is too high.

A hissing radiator vent is likely doing the work that a main vent should be doing, in addition to it's own job of venting the radiator and the pipe feeding it.

The ideal situation to me would be to have a well-vented system running at a very low pressure (ounces) and a firing rate which will take the boiler from cold to hot radiators in under ten minutes, less if already fired in a previous cycle.