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Radiators Heat Only Halfway

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MDV
MDV Member Posts: 2
in Strictly Steam
I'm on a serious mission to understand steam heat balancing and to minimize heat complaints in our 5 story walk ups. Currently struggling with a situation on the 5th floor of one of the buildings. Have an apartment with 5 risers and two radiators. We put new large opening air valves on the top of all risers and on two radiators. Risers all get hot but radiators (fairly large, old units) only get hot in first 50% of columns. I even removed air valve while system was feeding steam and though air was coming out of the hole, it was anemic, almost like a blockage mid radiator was keeping it from flowing. However, since we're seeing same thing in both radiators, which seem to come off same riser, I'm wondering if what I'm seeing could be the result of a "steam hog" issue in one of the units below this apartment. Any thoughts?

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  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,477
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    Rebalance

    Steam is lazy, it will go where there is least resistance, what size vents are on the other radiators on this riser? Now that you have fast venting on the riser you may have to reevaluate the venting on all the radiators on that branch.



    Is there any noise involved now that you have vented the riser? maybe the horizontal pipe on the 5th floor has bad pitch? A bit of a stretch but who knows.



    Bob
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
  • nicholas bonham-carter
    nicholas bonham-carter Member Posts: 8,576
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    Steam hog?

    Why not add up the total EDR of the radiators on that riser, and see if the riser pipe size can support that value? Is there any insulation on the pipe?

    Even though the radiator seems only to heat halfway, is the room temperature comfortable?--NBC
  • MDV
    MDV Member Posts: 2
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    Rebalancing

    No new noise as a result of new riser vents. However, reventing was my first response to heat complaints in this apartment, so issue with half filing radiators I believe predated the change to the riser valves. Have to try to get into all units below, which is a challenge in old school NYC walk-up, to see if there is overheating elsewhere and a hogging situation.



    While talking venting, ordered the ebook from this site this morning on venting tables, but can someone explain why some valves, ie. Hoffman are $20+ a piece but others are well under $10 each. Is there a demostrable difference? Also, what is the feeling on using fixed size vs. adjustable relief valves?
  • Steve_175
    Steve_175 Member Posts: 238
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    Pitch

    Did you check the pitch of the radiators?
This discussion has been closed.

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