2 pipe steam

joe52708

I have closed 2 pipe steam heat with traps , recently an air vent was installed on a radiator I was having problems with. Was this a mistake. Can I remove vent this myself?

nicholas bonham-carter

Yes-bad idea

Read what one of the masters here has to say about this.





http://www.gwgillplumbingandheating.com/webapp/GetPage?pid=260





To remove it, the boiler must be switched off for half an hour. You will need a pipe plug of the same quarter inch diameter.the vent should unscrew without much difficulty as it is made of brass. Why not describe any difficulties this botched repair was attempting to overcome, and we can advise.--NBC

joe52708

thanks

thanks for the help.. problem is radiator not warming all the way through. probably problem with the trap.. I have read that article you sent before and soon as I came home and saw the air vent on my radiator,, well thanks for the verification.. funny you sent me same link.. can you answer if I change that trap.. i believe I can swap out inards.. do I have to change all traps to match ? or just the broken one?

Paul48

No

You can repair the bad trap with a cage unit. Check out this site... http://barnesandjones.com/

The Steam Whisperer (Formerly Boilerpro)

It's more likely...

you have a bad trap on a radiator or steam main near the radiator that doesn't heat.  Usually traps fail open, which means the radiator with the failed trap will heat very well, but prevents radiators around it from heating properly.

Rod

Good Tool for Checking Steam Traps

Hi - Home Depot carries a Ryobi Tek4 Model RP4030 Infrared Thermometer.  "Santa" brought me one last Christmas and it is great for checking steam traps.  You aim the red dot at the inlet piping between the radiator and the trap and take a reading and then take a reading of the outlet piping. If the readings are close, then you have a bad trap as the steam is going straight through. If the trap is working okay there will be a noticeable temperature differential between the two readings. Take the readings up fairly close as the farther you are away from the trap, the wider the sampling area.

     Since you're lucky enough to have a two pipe system you may want look into orifices.

There's a lot of info on orifices in past posts so use the search the Wall button to find them.

- Rod

joe52708

thanks

thanks for the tips everyone. radiator right by the one in question runs very hot.. maybe that trap is stuck open.. thanks again