Idea's as to getting steam horizontally to farthest radiators at other end of house on first floor?

Athana

At the other end of house on first floor are two radiators in same room that will not heat up readly.The room above this space also is slow to heat.

They are over an enclosed crawl space.

The valves were replaced and Gorton vents with biggest holes installed

The radiators on the third floor have no trouble heating though.They get instant heat though far away as well.

These radiators only heat up when boiler is cranking full out. Usually they are cold.



The plan is to drill/tap and add an additional vent to those two radiators as per suggested in Dan Holohans book..and possibly insulated pipes under crawl space..

But what else can it be??

Jamie Hall

Pipes not insulated

in the crawl space?  !!!  That's the place to start, right there.  They are condensing like mad and it will naturally take a while for the steam to get there!



An object lesson in why steam mains need insulation...



The extra vents will probably help, too.

Steamhead

Are there

any main vents on the steam main feeding this area?

Mark N

Cold Room

You state in another thread that JStar put in a gas boiler for you. You should have him look it over and get it fixed.

JStar

Steam

Sometimes, a second opinion is needed to confirm my own suggestions.

Mark N

Cold Room

All your going to get here are opinions from people who haven't actually seen what is going on. We know the pipes are uninsulated and in a crawl space. Are the pipes large enough to handle the connected radiation? Are the pipes properly pitched? Does every rad have its own runout from the main or do they share the same runout? Not enough info given to really give a good suggestion. If your expert opinion is to tap and add a second vent and insulate the pipes, then that is what should be done. If that is only a part of your recommendation then we don't have the whole story.

Jamie Hall

If Joe

is on this one, he's the chap I'd listen to!  He's one of the best in the business, and if he's seen it... 

Athana

Its a Mystery

Joe is working on it..its trial & trial.. but I figured to ask here and maybe there is something that he has not thought of. As it is like a detective thing.

The crawl space undernieth has an open hatch to regular basement which we keep open so it is not really stone cold in there.

The owner previous to the people we bought the house from, say that that room had always heated up..!

But the last owners did not clean the boiler and one day it had a soot explosion..

It got everywhere in the house...maybe this soot has somehow clogged the piping going in that direction??

But I think that area always had trouble, as on that line is extra vents taped into that pipe.

This is a challenging thing

ChrisJ

Just a guess

Only thing I can think of is vent all of the other radiators slower, or at least slow a few down.



That and insulate those pipes! If you're killing steam faster than you're making it some radiators will never get hot. This is why slower venting may help.



My guess is once most of the other radiators are hot there is finally some extra steam left over to go to the cold ones.