Not getting heat at all or on several sections on the radiators

jlee889

Ok, I will try to explain the problem I have in detail as much as I can with photos.I like to hear from all before I call an expert to exam. 

(Red colored mask on the photos show hot temperature and blue color for cold.)





<strong> Background:</strong>

This is a new house (an old house but newly purchased recently) and this is very first time to deal (and learn) about steam stuff.

I have purchased  'Lost art of Steam Heating' book last week and read about an half of chapters - a facinating book!!! - but my 'Steam Knowledge' is not sufficient enough to pin point my issues, yet. 

 

I have very limited hands-on skill for heating system. (Water copper pipe soldering is the most advanced experience of pumbing. I work on computer systems for living and a weekend DIYer car restoration.)

House was built in mid 1920s.The boiler is Peerless installed in 1991.

It's one pipe steam heating sytem.





<strong> I have checked</strong>

: -All air vents on the radiators. I replaced them with new same air hole size vents. <a href="http://www.maid-o-mist.com/jacobus.html"></a><a href="http://www.maid-o-mist.com/jacobus.html">http://www.maid-o-mist.com/jacobus.html</a>

- Pitched slightly

- Drained boiler water several times (It was really muddy dirty water intinally.

 A drain valve in the low water cut-off was so clogged with mudd that it was replaced with new one by the heating contractor. )

- Filled water to proper level. (It was very low.)

- There are no bangging sound from the pipe except one radiator in second floor which is getting hot well.

- Boiler pressure gauge shows '0' reading or a little over '0' between '0' and '1' reading.

- Boiler flame kicks in but shuts off in a min or less. It continues this cycle every five to ten min - flame kicks in for a few min. then shuts off.

(Btw, Gas valve makes loud buzzing noise.)  

<ul><li><strong>Still have problems:</strong></li><li>

Some of radiators are not getting heat at all or getting mild hot in first two or three sections of radiators.

(There is only radiator in the house in second floor which getting heat across all sections fully.)

- If I push thermostat in the living room to 70 or higher, more sections on the radiator get hot.

</li><li><strong> Questions:</strong>

- I try to narrow down the culprits.

- Is radiator or boiler issue?

- If it's about boiler,   

-is boiler installed incorrectly?   

 As you see attached photos, it's copper piping and one area elbow on return area corroded badly. 



Is there any steam system expert contractor in northen NJ area to call?

-  A couple of heating contractors are called to troubleshoot.

They did perform drain and flush boiler and all recommanded to install a new boiler but didn't provide me a nailed down troubleshooting points about my problems.  



I am not sure if they looked at a whole system and exam hartford loop and 'A' dimension size of return system....since they didn't leave a boiler room to check the supply and return pipes or radiators on the floors.



Thanks in advance for any comments/help/feedback!  </li></ul>

Jamie Hall

Sounds like

You may have a problem with the burner or the pressuretrol (as well as a couple of other things).  The burner really shouldn't kick in and out that fast, at least not until things are pretty well warmed up and pressure starts to rise.  The pressure readings are OK.  However, the pressuretrol may not be working properly or it's pigtail may be plugged.  That should be checked.  The settings on it should be a cut in around one half psi and the differential (additive) around 1 psi.  That should give you plenty of pressure.  If it is a burner problem, that's out of my field.



The boiler piping isn't too bad -- except that it's copper.  It should have been black iron.  I really don't like the look of the corrosion; it could just be sloppy workmanship originally, but it could also indicate a leak -- and copper will do that.  At least they used both boiler steam tappings -- be thankful for small blessings.



The banging radiator may indicate that the pipe feeding it doesn't have enough pitch.  It should be a half inch per foot.  It could also be that the valve isn't fully open.



That's starters, anyway...

Mike Kusiak_2

Thermostat?

What type of thermostat are you using? is the anticipator or CPH set correctly? It is hard to tell from your description, but is the boiler cycling on pressure by the pressuretrol, or is the thermostat calling for very short cycles? When you say the boiler runs for a minute and then stays off  for 10, it sounds like the thermostat is running very short cycles, which are not long enough to fill the system with steam.

zippy

airbound?

Sounds like a problem I had. Short cycling. one rad real hot, the rest with cool segments. But I have an unusual (aren't they all?) 2 pipe system.

We added a main house vent on the return above the boiler in the boiler room and it works like a charm. I don't have air vents on each rad though.

We added a Hoffman 75

Unknown

Thanks for a quick respond.

Thanks for a quick respond.

 How do I check the pressuretrol which is set at 0.5 psig?  

Also Gas Valve makes a loud buzzing noise when it is open from solenoid.



I am going to call heating contractor but  Is this something limited experience DIYer can replace? 

Unknown

Thermostat

It's not advanced Cycles per hour on digital stats but Heat Anticipator with a thin adjustment arm in it. . It is very possible that it might have been touched accidently when I painted the wall while thermo cover removed.  I will doublecheck. Thanks for a tip!  

Unknown

air vent

I do see larger air vents on the supply pipes in the basement. I will check the return pipes as well. Thanks for the comment.

jpf321

excellent NJ Steam Pro .. Clammy

Call Clammy for Northern NJ .. see Rod's post here: http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/129459/Boiler-Replacement#p1186649

jblee889

Looking for Northen NJ steam experts...

CPH setting change didn't change - same short cycle of shutting and shut off.

Increased pressuretrol tap slightly toward 1.5 psi didn't change either.





Thanks for the contact recommandation.

I contacted 'Clammy' for Northern NJ from the web page - contact user form and there is no tel# otherwise and I haven't got a response yet => http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum/profile/592/clammy



Is there other expert contractors about steam heating in Northen NJ area?

NJ finder page lists Gateway Plumbing and Heating.  Is this knowledgeable  contractor who can do troubleshooting and repair?



http://www.heatinghelp.com/find-a-professional/NJ/Orange



Thanks,