don't know what to do?

chllngr73

this is my first winter in my new house. it's a 1950 cape with oil fired steam heat. the house is only heated on the main floor with in wall convectors but i do have 1 radiator in what i use as my dining room.the rest of the house, finished basement and upstairs have electric baseboards. it is terrible, the vents bang around in three of the rooms the pipes bang in the morning when the system turns on there so much clanging and banging i don't know where to start. could someone please help. i need to quiet this beast.





Tom

JStar

To start...

How comfortable are you with being able to make some adjustments to your system? Right off the bat, the first thing I'd do is check what pressure the boiler is running at. If you can, get us some pictures of the boiler and piping on all sides of the boiler.

Unknown

"We Got Steam Heat"

A good place to start is to get a good book on steam heating which is available on this website, It's called:  "We Got Steam Heat"   Here's a link to it:

http://www.heatinghelp.com/products/Books/5/61/We-Got-Steam-Heat-A-Homeowners-Guide-to-Peaceful-Coexistence

It's written for homeowners who are new to steam and is easy, humorous, reading. It's packed full of information, pictures and diagrams on residential steam heating and  In an evening or two of reading you'll have a far idea of how your steam system works. Once you have an understanding of how it works we can suggest items that you need to check.

- Rod

chllngr73

pics of my setup

i hope these are ok.

tom

nicholas bonham-carter

noisy system

i think your hartford loop is incorrect. the horizontal pipe is very long in picture 4, and the loop should go all the way to the floor.

if you had a good low pressure gauge [gaugestore.com 0-3psi], you could see how honest your pressuretrol was, instead of relying on the 0-30 psi code gauge, whose range is useless for system diagnostics.

you could use some more insulation on the supply piping.perhaps you can tell which parts of the piping are hammering, and we can go from there.

certainly, a copy of "the lost art of steam heating" would help you understand what is going on in your system.--nbc

JStar

Agreed on the loop.

Also, take these two measurements.



1. From the floor to the water line in the boiler. (Typically should be around 24" or so.)



2. Measure from the floor to the lowest horizontal return pipe in the boiler room.



If the difference between the two is less than 28", you have a problem.

nicholas bonham-carter

"a" dimension

the manufacturer's installation manual will  show the correct waterline height. the "a" dimension is the difference between the dry return height and the waterline level, which should be 28 inches. [is there a good diagram of this on the wall?]--nbc

JStar

Dimension A

Measure the difference in pipe height where it says 28:.

chllngr73

measurements

i know the boiler is sitting on 4" blocks so if u look at picture 4 the pipe with a little insulation on it is 7" off ground and the next horizontal pipe is 22 1/2". the water line from the floor including the 4" block is 30". just let me know what u guys need and i'll do my best to get u all the info.





thanks  tom

chllngr73

side note

i bought the house from a bank as it was in foreclosure. when i had the boiler serviced in august last year the tech. said he doesn't think anyone serviced it since it was put in, so im pretty sure theres been no maintenance on anything.





tom

JStar

Look at that picture.

You measured to the wrong pipe. Find where the return lines come back into the boiler room up high, before they drop down to the boiler. Measure to the bottom of them.

chllngr73

new measurements

if u look at the second to last picture for the piping im refering to, the lower pipe is 78" and the higher pipe is 89 1/2" off the ground.



tom