chirping steam rads

Unknown

Periodically as the steam begins to populate the rads, I hear a chirping sound coming from one or a few air vents. System is a single-pipe parallel flow, air vents are Jacobsen, pressuretrol set at 1/2 psi set-in and a 1/1/2 psi differential. System works and heats home beautifully. Positive that sound is caused by air rushing out of the AV orifice causing chirping, but unsure of root cause or even this is a problem or not? Steam coming up too quickly? partially clogged air ventslightly restricting true orifice air flow and/or air exit velocity? Any ideas or solutions from the many experts on this web site welocom

thanks and Happy New Year, MarkZ

Jamie Hall

Whistle while you work...

From the heating standpoint, it probably isn't a problem.  From the annoyance standpoint, I can see that it might be a pain.  It probably is air whistling through the vents; if they are adjustable, you might try tweaking them (not much) one way or the other to see if that helps.  Or cleaning them, if you are ambitious.

Unknown

chirping steam rads

Jamie, thanks for the fast reply. Wasn't under the impression I had a imminent boiler explosion on my hands, but steam should be silent like death. These Jacobsen vents are adjustable only in the manner that the air orifice can be unscrewed/removed and exchanged w/ smaller and/or larger one, not micro adjusted. Next time I have the air compressor running and the steam is not up, I'll remove a couple of the reoccurring noise makers and blow out. Could be a piece of rust, dust or anything else that collected over time. Not the noisiest of things, but would love to correct.

thanks again, MarkZ

Big-Al_2

Silent like Death?

I've read on this board that vents should be silent, but haven't been able to replicate it in my own system.  Try blowing through a radiator vent.   Most of them will hiss somewhat no matter how gently you try . . . some louder than others. I've tried a variety of brands. Some seem to have a certain flow point at which they will whistle. Sucking backwards through them can get really noisy. Depending on whether or not there is even a bit of conensate left in the vent body, the sound of a vent may change. 



I have a couple of Hoffman 40's that are sometimes almost dead silent, and at other times can whistle, burble, rattle, or chirp, and then stop without explanation.  The Heat Timer VariValves make some really interesting gurgling or sizzling noises.  The Watts vents I have will whistle like crazy when the boiler shuts down and draws a vacuum.  One of the brand new Maid-O-Mist #6 vents I tried did the same thing. Another supposedly identical one is mostly quiet. The Gorton radiator vents I've tried are fairly quiet until they start to ever-so-slowly close.  Right before they shut off completely, they can get quite audible.

 

Heck, my radiators start to make an audible hissing noise a minute after the boiler wakes up from a long setback, and this continues for a couple minutes . . . then falls silent again for ten minutes until the boiler starts steaming for real.  There must be some condensation in the upper part of the boiler that flashes off right away when the burner kicks in . . . or something like that.   



As the steam comes up, and vents start to close, the remaining vents start to pick up the slack and get louder.  If your boiler is even a little oversized, the problem is compounded. 



Per what I've read here, I've tried to maximize my main venting, recently adding three Hoffman 75s to the original Trane vent.  It might have helped a tiny bit, or maybe it's just wishful thinking.  Insulating the little bit of bare pipe I had didn't help either.



I've spent a lot of time trying to make my radiator vents super quiet, with very limited success.  My conclusion is that the silent vent stories are total bull. If my vents are silent, they are either closed or the boiler isn't steaming.  There is no water hammer,  the vents don't spit, and my system heats up quickly and evenly.  I'm done wasting my time trying to make it silent.

MarkZeh

chirping steam rads

BigAl, big thanks for the reply, and great laughs. Did some more observing and found this: the ONLY vents that chirp are the Maid-O-Mist vents w/ the 'C' size orifice. All other are silent like death. It appears that when it become very cold out other rads slightly chirp as well, maybe 2-3 others w/ all having that 'C' orifice. This only occurrs when the steam is rising towards the rads, never on cool down or initial boiler start up. Seems to me that there is a specific rate on my system that the steam drives the air out of the vents to make that slight chirp, colder nights - more rads chirp. Interesting, but just like you....I'm done. Just wanted to check w/ the pros if there was some other issue I should be concerned about. With that said, time for a scotch.

best, MarkZ