lots of promblems and straighting it all out

clammy

Recently a good friend purchased a older home but unfortunatly had sealed the deal before i had taken a look at it and it did get a home inspection but the inspector had said all was great he must have been on the take (did not report the 20 year old hot  water heater,knob and tube electric,80 year old buried oil tank ,asphalt shingles over the original cedar shingle roof  the list goes on and on) The promblem being there original single pipe steam system with a newer peerless 4 setion steamer ,the boiler piping is not to bad but there are a few rads that just will not heat ,there is the sound of steam painting when the rad is disconnected from the supply valve but steam does not appear.My thoughts are the 2 inch main  which feeds all except 4 rads is not insulated and keeps the basement quite warm ,heats all the 1 st floor rads and very slowly heats most of the second floor except for that one rad.When i first cheked out the system i cranked up the stat,lower the pressuretroll and waited and waited and waited about 45 minutes and not much happened the mains where hot annd rads slowly heated ,I changed all the rad vents and main vents (had to use doles nobody and i mean nobody carries gorton any more they state to much money and the mark up they charge makes them sit on the shelves)The mains heated quiker and alot of the rads got hot except the one on the second floor i even disconnet the rad from the valve and nothing ,boiler sight glass is clean ,no surging,no hammering .My gut feeling is that the mains need to be insulated and the boiler serviced,oil burner and water side flushing.I did a very quick edr on the rads and the boiler is sized large enough to handle the load.Even though the 2 inch mains rad load is only about 70,000 btu  the other main is under 12,000 and 1 1/2 main.Also this was a i would guess older peerless steam  boiler single 2 inch tapping ,piped to a small 2 inch header .What are you all thoughts on this ,insulate the mains and see how she goes and if the promblems still existes (after removing sheet rock in basement to phyically see the risers piping )then repipe the boiler header and slow down that existing velocity ,there,s no tell tale sounds of wet steam slugging down the main either .Thanks peace and good luck and have a enjoyable safe happy holiday clammy

Jamie Hall

First thing

is to insulate those mains.  I'd bet they were insulated once upon a time -- probably asbestos -- and that got removed and never put back.  I am always amazed at how long it takes steam to navigate an uninsulated main -- even when it is well vented.  Oddly enough risers don't seem to be so critical.



So yes, that would be the first thing.  Then try it and see what happens.

Mark Eatherton

Couple of things to check...

Clammy, Check the firing rate on the boiler. If it is under fired, then what it is creating is being consumed, hence the panting.



I had a job just like this once, and the boiler was significantly under sized. I insulated all accessible mains, and installed TRV's on all the radiators, and got heat to go where it hadn't been going to before, that being the top floor radiator, furthest from the heat source.



Let me know if you need some instruction for clocking the meter.



Peace, and Merry Christmas to you and yours.



ME