Gurgling & Spitting Steam Radiator

RJ_4

check your header piping at the boiler, look in Dan,s Deadman,s book around page 54. If your pipng is wromg you may be entraining water up the main.

Tim Melley_2

Rattling & Spitting Steam Radiator

Hello,

I have a one-pipe steam radiator. When it first comes on, it hisses quietly and warms up. Then after a couple minutes, the hissing becomes loud with spitting, and a steady metallic rattling emanates from the body of the radiator. (This is something different from the hammering/banging that so many describe - I have experienced that elsewhere.) This continues until the steam goes off at which point the rattling stops and the hissing/spitting changes to a wheeze which dies down gradually. The vent never shuts closed suddenly (as in 'click').

I've already checked the pitch of the radiator and it is slightly toward the supply valve as is proper. This radiator is a replacement for one of the same make and type that previously operated without this problem in the same spot, so I doubt the problem is systemic. Do I need a new air vent? Will I need to drain anything?

Thanks.

Brad White_184

Wet Steam

Sounds like you have a pocket of water somewhere along the way, or a place where it can form to be picked up and hurled forward. Nothing to drain, per se, but to avoid collecting in the first place. If it is a replacement radiator, might the "fit" be enough off in height such that the feeding pipe's pitch was changed even slightly?

Are your pipes insulated as best they can be? What pressure are you running at the boiler, cut-in to cut-out?

It may well be a damaged or defective vent (given that it does not fully shut off) but on the off-chance that there is water in the system which could damage now and future vents, I would eliminate that as a cause.

That you have spitting says something systemic to me, revealed by what also might be a bad vent (or another way, concealed by the vent when it was working well enough).

While the radiator may be pitched already, can you fit another checker under the opposing legs?

Jon Held

You're just talking about one radiator? What about the rest of the system? If no other pipes were changed along with this rad replacement I would check the pitch at several system temperature points. On my one pipe system, the rads move slightly as the pipes expand/contract changing pitch slightly, but enough to notice on a level with my calibrated eyeballs. Once correct pitch is certain, replace the breather valve with a Gorton of correct venting capacity for the rad size/location and see where you are.

RJ_4

piping

check your header piping at the boiler, look in Dan,s Deadman,s book around page 54. If your pipng is wromg you may be entraining water up the main.