Heating Help is transitive

Seth Rothenberg

(Cliff notes: Long email to say thanks to all the dedicated steamers,

you have empowered me to be a vigilante steam guy :-)



I wanted to post a thanks...both from me and also on behalf of my friend.

Yesterday, he commented to me about considering ripping out the steam radiators,

because some rooms are too hot, too cold, burned the kid, boiling out....

I told him to check for vent valves that don't shut when hot. And I offered to visit.

I'm no expert, but I know what I have read here and in the Lost Art....



This morning, he showed me the near-boiler piping.

The issues are many, but the one I could fix today was

a main vent spitting so much water that the joist it was hitting is rotted.

I had a busy schedule, and I know my friend, so I gave him a new main vent

and a pair of wrenches. The text he sent me at the end of the day was



"Our house has never felt more comfortable. I'm amazed at what one valve change can do."



The Good news - no wet return to speak of, the main is one loop.

(contrast my house with 25' of 100-year-old wet return :-)

My friend had insulated all of it, the only drawback was he insulated

some parallel pipes with one wrapping, which makes it hard to trace

or photograph.



Issues not yet addressed -

1. I am sure there are some radiator vent valves that are bad,

1b. The second main vent may be failed shut, slowing heat, and causing radiator vents to work hard.

2. All near-boiler plumbing is Copper. I warned him about the chemical reaction....

3. It's all 2" with an adaptor to fit where the old header was - 3" or more

4. The boiler has 2 risers, but the header doubles back on itself and is undersized.

There seems to be something almost like a Hartford loop on the end of the header.

It is strange.

(I took a picture, will try to post it.). There is a hartford loop down at the return.



It is interesting to note that

a) My house also has near-boiler piping in Copper.

I know that the former owner of my house was a dangerous handyman :-)

b) The one described above is across the street

c) The one I wrote about last year also had no wet return,

(since it was built) and also had copper for near-boiler plumbing.



I think all 3 houses were victims of the same amateur plumber.

(said the computer programmer / amateur plumber :-)



I have another neighbor I'll need to check with,

his house's former owner was related to my house's former owner.



Anyway, enough for this Thank you. Keep up the knowledge sharing.



Seth in NJ