these 2 vents had BURST under pressure...

jpf321

At my neighbor's house, they asked me to look at two rads which spewed steam and sounded like a jet engine .. this is what I found...I asked them if they ever went away in winter without leaving the heat on, they said no.



They are stamped USAV .. made in China .. I assume they were bought at big-box-orange store.



<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JuuICk78iPs/S7ZltiWMzoI/AAAAAAADYW4/SM3ZQ05rWsw/s720/IMG_9648.JPG" width="720" height="481" alt="" />

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JuuICk78iPs/S7Zl49hLchI/AAAAAAADYXI/sj5C9nH8SRQ/exploded_vent_2.jpg" width="552" height="476" alt="" />

<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_JuuICk78iPs/S7Zl39tAO_I/AAAAAAADYXA/oRpT-KH-wao/s720/IMG_9650.JPG" width="720" height="481" alt="" />

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_JuuICk78iPs/S7Zl5RI5hKI/AAAAAAADYXQ/3RYhBFw6ePM/exploded_vent_1.jpg" alt="" />

Steamhead

Not surprising for that brand

and yes, they are sold at Home Depot. 

nicholas bonham-carter

a little problem?

even as shoddy a product as they are, what sort of pressure would there have been to have done that?--nbc

jpf321

pressure unknown .. i'd love to see a test

they are running a Burnham Independence rated for 450sq ft. They only have about 250sq ft installed EDR. These 2 were on the "back main" which is a counter-current main which services 3 rads basically directly overhead of the boiler. The boiler cycled very well ON LOW WATER, not pressure.



Their 0-30psi pressure gauge is basically dead (goes up to 4lbs and stays there until very cooled down) .. I couldnt get the gauge off .. so I left it but installed a 0.0-3psi gauge next to the p-trol. I have a funny feeling that the pigtail was clogged as well.



It's all working well now (except for the 0-30psi gauge) .. there are a few notes about the pressuretrol in another thread I posted earlier today.



if anyone, for the sake of answering NBC's question, wants to get a HD USAV vent and stick it on some regulated heated pressure testing rig, I'd love to hear at what pressure they split.



jpf

Mike Kusiak_2

May not be caused by pressure.

Those vents definitely look to be poor quality, but the split may not be caused by excessive pressure. The shells look to be made of drawn brass, which if not alloyed and made correctly will split spontaneously from internal stresses. The splitting is known as "season cracking" and is fairly common. I have several electrical connector housings of similar size and construction which have split in several places. One of them has actually split in so many places that it looks like the petals of a flower opening. None have ever been under any sort of pressure or stress.





So it is probably another case of  "high quality"  Chinese manufacturing, rather than the fault of excessive system pressure.

gerry gill

hehe..yup ..i've replaced many of those

exact same brands...been very good for business..like i always tell my customers when i'm replacing those junkie vents, ''what do the chinese know about heating with steam?''