Radiator vent question

kennyb

Okay here was my issue I had dole 1a vents on all the radiators I have a total of 6 throughout my house. I was having a banging noise on one of the upstairs radiators, I adjusted the pitch the venting speed on the radiator with no luck at all. I then put the old vents that were originally on the radiators back on which were durst non adjustable vents and the hammering and all noise went away. The only noise is the air coming out of the valve and then the vent closing when steam hits it. My question is I've tried all the expensive vents with no luck but the cheap vents seem to work better with my issue and it's never been quieter and the radiators evenly get heat and the boiler seems to be running a little less. Anyone have a answer to why the cheaper valves working better than the gorton....vari valves and doles haven't ???

KC_Jones

What size/speed were the "expensive" vents you used? It sounds like the vent that is working is very slow and that can make the difference. What is your main venting like?

kennyb

The vents where adjustable dole 1a which I had to tinker with consently cause they hissed or made noise

Well I have a 1 pipe with 2 mains the one long main has 2 gorton number 1's on it the other main which I just recently found out has no vents on it it's significantly smaller main and on feed 2 radiators. I'm having a guy come out Wednesday morning to evaluate then system. I'm thinking to add even more venting to the larger main and add some vents to the smaller main which unfortunately is out of my scope of expertise.

KC_Jones

If it was me I would wait till you get that main venting in order. It sounds like what is going on is your radiator vents are trying to do a lot more than what they should be. Without proper main venting not only is balancing extremely difficult at best you are asking those little radiator vents to do more than what they are designed for. It's been said on this site so many times. You need to vent the mains fast and the radiators slowly. That main you have with 2 Gorton #1's unless it's only about 12-15 feet long it probably doesn't have enough venting and the other main with no vents for sure needs some work. Get those mains in order and I think you will be shocked at the difference that will make in comfort and speed of heating.

kennyb

Well I have a guy coming Wednesday to evaluate the system. I don't wanna mess with adding main venting when I'm not 100% sure of what I'm doing