happy 2012! 2 questions

HenryT

Hi everyone. I have two questions and i hope someon can chime in with their opinion.



For radiator covers, if the front is install with grilles thay will allow heat to come thru, arent these grilles aluminum? Wouldnt this bounce the heat back towards the outside wall?



Second. What does it mean if i have crud dropping from the top of my site glass? See pics. This is for one pipe steam system.



Thanks in advance!

Abracadabra

...

Depends on the radiator cover design.  Unless they have a fan on them, I'm of the opinion that any radiator cover will slow down the heat radiated to the room.  I think they are more for decorative purposes.







You need to skim your boiler.

crash2009

Enclosure Dirty Sight Glass

On the enclosure thing, according to this picture I found up in the library here at heatinghelp, you can increase or decrease your heat output by using a radiator enclosure.  Of course it depends on which type of enclosure you use.



On the sight glass thing, I usta have the same problem.  Well let me re-phrase that.  It's a lot better now, but it's not 100%.  In my case the upper brass part was full of sludge.  When the boiler ran I could see the sludge running down the glass.  I skimmed and skimmed, for days, maybe weeks all together.  Finally I broke down and took the sight glass apart, and skimmed the boiler out of the upper sight glass brass piece.  A lot of crap came out.  It has stayed clean for a couple months so far. 



There must be an easier way.  If you break the glass, you have to go buy a new one.  You can't get the same size.  Then you have to have the glass cutter tool.  The guy at the hardware store will sell you 3 or 4 tubes to practice on.  Apparently its impossible to cut the glass the first time without screwing up.  It takes practice.  Anyway I got lucky and managed to get the glass out and in without breaking it, you might too.  I just wanted to give you the heads up.  Get a pair of new rubber washers.



I guess there is a drain bolt that comes out of the bottom of the sight glass but mine was corroded.  I didn't want to go there.  It looks like it could be used to clean the sight glass without taking it apart.  Maybe someone else knows for sure.

Hap_Hazzard

Draining the gauge glass

Probably what you have there is a petcock. They tend to get seized up and don't work very well when they open. I took Gordo's advice and replaced mine with a 1/4" full-port ball valve. I even found one with a male thread on one end so it didn't need a nipple.

crash2009

Yup

That looks like the right thing to do Hap.  Then you can close the bottom, open the top, overfill the boiler, and drain through the added valve.