When is a radiator considered full?

ddanman

I have a two pipe steam system (Moline) with two mains, and one return.  I have several radiators of varying sizes located throughout my house.  My questions is When is a radiator considered full of steam?  If you consider in this example that all the radiator inlet valves are fully open and after a completed heating cycle, I have some radiators that are hot all the way across all rungs at the top 3-4 inches, I have some radiators that are hot all the way across all rungs & half way down the rungs vertically (50%), and I have some radiators that are hot all the way across all rungs and all the way down the rungs vertically on the radiator almost to the return line.  Which one is considered full or normal in a steam system, and how do I go about making them all the same?

Jamie Hall

Full

the ones which are hot all the way across and down are full; the others aren't.  The only way I know of to make the others get more full is, oddly, to restrict the flow of steam to the ones that are full.  This may involve a good bit of trial and error.  There are a number of ways to do this, though -- orifices on the inlet, orifices on the outlet, and partially closing inlet valves come to mind.



On the other hand, be sure you really want to do this -- what you are really looking for is comfortable heat in the various rooms, and that may mean that a bedroom, for example, might not want it's radiator full!