What size Gorton Air Vent

MC_2

I have a 40x17 (4 floors) brownstone with a one pipe steam system. The boiler is in the back of the basement, and the front rooms of the house are always colder, despite resizing radiator vents and installing danfoss adjustable vents. The front main runs approx 30ft from the boiler before going vertical. I ordered a Gorton #2 air vent to replace the current air vent for the front main, and it looks like it could handle a job 50X what I need. Before installing, I would like to know -- Is there any harm in putting in an air-vent that is "too big"?

Unknown

Get your main venting straightened out first before the addressing the radiator vents. Each individual main should have a vent on it usually at the end just before it drops down to become a return. Find all your main vents and make sure they are working properly and /or replace them. Keep ion mind that mains can go vertically too so check the piping going to the upper floors for main vents. Generally speaking there isn't such a thing as too big a main vent. The faster the mains vent, the faster the steam gets to the pipes leading to the radiators. (For you info- A Gorton #2 has 3 times the venting capacity of a Gorton # 1)

After you have you main vents working properly then check out the radiator vents. Keep in mind that the radiator vent's job is to vent air from the radiator and the pipe leading from the main to the radiator. One of the primary reasons you can have slow heat to the radiator is the radiator is doing its job AND the job of the main vent. The main vents should do their own job! Main vents generally have 10 to 20 times the venting capacity of a radiator vent.

The first thing to do is make sure your radiator valves (the valve on the pipe coming out of the floor) are fully open (radiator valves at either fully open or fully closed)and then use a bubble level to make sure that the radiators are sloped towards the steam pipe for proper condensate drainage.

There are several types of radiator vents.
Some with fixed size orifices: (You can get them in different sizes of orifices) Gorton "Equalizing Valves" #4,5,6 C,D are good examples of these.

http://www.gorton-valves.com/specify.htm

Some with adjustable orifices like HeatTimer VariValve

http://www.heat-timer.com/literature/VariV056082C.pdf

The Danfoss you mentioned is a TRV vent. (Thermostatic Radiator Vent) The orifice is fixed size and the releasing rate of air from the radiator is controlled by the thermostatic part of the valve. If the room is hotter than the valve's thermostat is set for, the valve doesn't allow the air in the radiator to be vented and therefore keeps the steam(heat)out of the radiator. Otherwise it works just like a fixed orifice vent and closed when steam reaches it.
As the vent size is fixed all the TRV does is make the vent smaller until it is closed.

One of the ways you can test the venting capacity of a radiator is to install a short nipple and a ball valve in the vent hole on the radiator. Check to see how long it takes to get heat to the radiator. Make sure you are standing by to close the ball valve so you don't spray steam/water out the vent! Record the time it takes the steam to fill the radiator without vent and that would be the best time you can expect. Size your vents to try and match it as best you can.

Heat-Timer vents (variable orifice) might be work well for you. Put the TRV (Danfoss) vents on the rooms that get too hot.

Mad Dog_2

NO

Mad Dog

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Steamhead (in transit)

The Gorton #2

should work perfectly.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"