Did I over-do it with Gorton valves in single pipe steam TRVs?

agurkas

I bought several Honeywell valves from SupplyHouse and also got Gorton #C for those TRVs to go into furthest two bedrooms and one #6 for bedroom above the boiler one 2nd floor.

When heat turns on, those Gorton #c air vents are kind of loud. Did I over-do it and should have stuck with stock vents?

nicholas bonham-carter

If you can hear the radiator vents doing their job, then it's a sign that the main vents are inadequate. Keep adding main vents until the noise is reduced.
The other thing to check is the pressure, which because of modern manufacturing economies at Honeywell in their pressuretrol division must be checked with a low pressure gauge (0-3 psi gaugestore.com)--NBC

agurkas

Not only do I hear vents hissing, but also seem like some steam is getting out, or at least moisture. There is tiny bit of dripping out of one.
Yes, the vents on the main are shot and I am replacing them tonight.

nicholas bonham-carter

I think that will improve things guide a bit.
One Gorto 2 for each 20 feet of 2 inch pipe seems to be the rule of thumb.--NBC

agurkas

Is Gorton pretty much standard valve to use? I am looking at like $210 just in Gortons for one main. I got 4 of them.

Another question, to vent two 1.25" mains, which have 1/4" ports in them (Vent-Rite #35 valves), what is the maximum number of #1 Gortons I can put at which point I would have to drill out (which I am too scared to do, since I never done it on black steel) for larger port size?

Charlie from wmass

Gorton #2 is the most cost effective way to vent steam mains of air.

ChrisJ

Personally, I use nothing but Gorton's as I had bad luck with Hoffman vents.

Main venting issues aside Gorton Cs may or may not work with the TRVs. One of my TRVs does fine with a Gorton 6 while another on a equally large radiator with a lot less piping won't work right even with a Gorton 5.

The issue is the radiator will heat so fast the TRV doesn't have time to react and the room overheats badly. By fast I'm talking a good 15-20 minutes to heat all 19 sections so it's not super fast, but fast enough that it overheats the room.

My solution on that radiator was to install a Gorton 6 on the pipe and a Gorton 4 on the TRV. This way I get steam to the radiator fast, but then the radiator it self fills nice and slow and the TRV has plenty of time to respond to the warming room. Pictures of this can be found at the link in my signature.

Not sure how the Honeywell TRVs work but I've heard they have issues due to no vacuum breaker vs the Danfoss ones that do. Perhaps that information is incorrect.

gennady

Reading lost art of steam heating will help. In general, vent radiators slow and mains fast. And missing vacuum breakers are deal breaker. Use danfoss.