Repiping my boiler

adambnyc

Most rads are (rough estimate, I can post pictures) 36" high and 4 fin to 8 fin. All rads have 1" valves. All the rads get hot. Maybe I'm overthinking this. Should I ride out the season and see how it goes? It's gotta be better then before I repipe and had the two stage setup.

adambnyc

Sloshing is only after heating starts, after the second or third fin starts to warm.

Fred

Makes me suspect one of two possibilities: Either the condensate can't flow out at the same time steam is pushing in, as a result of that 1" pipe or the radiator supply is bushed down so much that a good amount of water sits in the bottom of the radiator.

adambnyc

My worst culprit

adambnyc

I see what your saying about the bushings on the rad. How could this rad possibly empty completely?.... they created water bowls at the bottom of every rad in my house.

Fred

Sure looks like that valve connection to that radiator is sitting awfully high. That is certainly suspect.

adambnyc

I changed that valve last month. It was a bit taller than the previous valve and caused the bottom of the pipe to bottom out when I tried to connect the rad. That's why both sides are shimmed. Wonder if I back pitched the black pipe a bit. I might have to get a shorter nipple.

Fred

adambnyc said:

I changed that valve last month. It was a bit taller than the previous valve and caused the bottom of the pipe to bottom out when I tried to connect the rad. That's why both sides are shimmed. Wonder if I back pitched the black pipe a bit. I might have to get a shorter nipple.

If I were you, and you can get the 1" bushing out of the radiator, I would get a 1-1/4" steam valve, with a 1-1/4" spud into the radiator and bush the pipe end of the valve down to 1" to fit the pipe and then use a shorter nipple to get the height you need. That will let the radiator drain a lot better.

Fred

Hatterasguy said:

Fred said:

If I were you, and you can get the 1" bushing out of the radiator, I would get a 1-1/4" steam valve, with a 1-1/4" spud into the radiator and bush the pipe end of the valve down to 1" to fit the pipe and then use a shorter nipple to get the height you need. That will let the radiator drain a lot better.

The water level in the radiator would drop by 1/8".

Would that result in the radiator "draining a lot better"?

With the correct pitch on the radiator it would probably help a lot. Did you look at the picture that shows how high the bottom of that valve is sitting, relative to the trough in that radiator?

ChrisJ

All of my radiators hold water.
Most of them are even bushed down. I think the tappings are all 1 1/2" and many are bushed down to 1", the rest to 1 1/4".

A few, are even pitched the wrong way, one by quite a bit.

None bang or complain and have been this way since the mid 1920s.

Steamhead

I think the vent on that radiator is too big. That size rad would do well with a Hoffman #40 or similar. The steam is coming in too fast and the water can't drain back against it.

If you still have the orifices that came with those vents, switch down to the #5 and see if that helps.

Increase the size of your main vents if this slows down the end rads too much.

adambnyc

Don't have em, never had em. Could you suggest a good adjustable replacement?

Steamhead

adambnyc said:

Don't have em, never had em.

First thing is to get main vents installed. This is key. Check out our Find a Contractor ad to see what effect they can have.

Once that's done, vent your radiators in the main living area where the thermostat is (assuming they're of similar size to the one you posted) with Hoffman #40s. Very small rads, under 12 square feet or so, can use a Maid-o-Mist with the #4 orifice. In bedrooms or other places that you want to keep cooler, either use your Maid-o-Mists and swap orifices as needed, or install Vent-Rite #1 adjustable vents.

hboogz

Hey @adambnyc have you made any changes? Has the water sloshing stopped? This thread goes over some great tips on valve height and the consequence (if any) of bushing down rad connections.

Have gorton valves fallen out of favor ??

Thanks all.

Harry.

adambnyc

No additional changes as of yet. The sloshing hasn't turned into water spitting out the air vents on the rads, which is a good thing of course. Just as long as they heat and don't spit water, I'm gonna call it good enough for now.

We haven't hit winter really yet. I'll feel a lot more confident if we go thru a cold snap for a few days and the system still performs well.

For my next project, I'm going to add a hot water loop to the system. I could use the additional radiation for a kitchen renovation that the contractor removed rads and didn't add anything back. Also heat in my first floor half bath and also to my second floor main bathroom.

The genius who renovated the second floor bathroom prior to my buying the house, removed the cast iron rad and replaced it with a baseboard. So, let me make that one clearer, steam heat on a slant fin baseboard heater which was meant for hot water... one guess how well that performs.

hboogz

Does the slant Fin baseboard even work? Didn't realize you could put a vent on those? You plan on running the water loop up to the first floor off the boiler with a heat exchanger ?

adambnyc

That slantfin gets warm on very rare occasion and quickly looses heat, as I would expect it to.

I'm going to fore go the heat exchanger. I can always add one in later but I don't think I'm going to need it. I don't want a separately controlled zone. I want the pump for the loop to kick off the same time that the boiler is making steam. All one zone.

adambnyc

@Steamhead Follow up on the radiator issue. I bought 8 vent rite #1's. installed 1 on my worst offender. Dialed it down to as low as it could possibly go without completely shutting vent. Problem solved!

Steamhead

Cool!

hboogz

Ventrites #1's are amazing. Don't know why they aren't widely available by me or online for that matter, but they have been a god send.

BobC

In it's range, the Ventrite is probably the best vent you can buy.

Bob

adambnyc

@hboogz bought them all from here, amazing price on these!

http://www.hvacrsupplynow.com/VENT-RITE-1-STEAM-AIR-VALVES-ADJUSTABLE_p_1787.html

hboogz

@adambnyc Thanks. I stocked up earlier this year from that site. Prior to that i couldn't find that anywhere and the one site that did sell it was selling each for $40. Just seems odd Ventrite marketing/sales wouldn't do a better job of distributing their product. It works wonderfully.