New steam pipe LOUD BANGING!

Jamie Hall

He drilled through a few joists? Oy. I wish they wouldn't do that. Where in the length of the joist? Where in the vertical cross section? (top? middle? bottom?). How big a hole? What is the vertical height of the joist? What is the span?

Not to be alarming, but holes of some sizes in some locations are fine. Holes of other sizes in other locations leave you with a structural weakness.

acwagner

Does that radiator heat all the way across? If it does you could try putting a smaller vent on it so it only heats halfway across or some fraction. This will make the radiator "virtually" smaller. If the hammer gets better than a smaller radiator will help. If not then it's probably the pitch is so off water is pooling somewhere.

Fred

I'm a little confused now. Your early pictures show the joists as being steel, with precast cutouts for plumbing, electrical, etc.. When you say "Joists" do you mean wall studs or does the floor structure change from steel to wood in that part of the building? Yopu moved the radiator 5 feet. Is there any opportunity to move it back where it originally was and eliminate that 5 feet of piping? It may mean removing one slat of your new floor to get to it but, since it is a new floor, getting another slat and replacing it should not be a problem.

biglebowski99

Fred, you don't miss anything, do you? You're amazing, thanks!

The floor joists are steel so I am not sure where or how big a hole he drilled through the side. (Or even if he is telling the truth since it is all covered up by finished flooring). I think seeing how it functions with a smaller vent is worth trying. Otherwise, I am going to see if it is possible to move the radiator back to the previous location. If I did that, I would want to switch it to baseboard heating. Also, is it worth it to ask the building super to try to lower system pressure? Maybe that and a smaller radiator would make things more manageable.

Fred

If the pressure is running higher than it should (no more than 1.5PSI, a pound is even better) yes, reducing the pressure will help. A slower vent may help too.

biglebowski99

So, hopefully, we are making some small progress. The building manager finally had our systems engineer come by and take a look. He mapped out the pipes and sizes. One thing he noticed is that it takes much longer (about 15 mins) for the top floor radiator to heat up than the floor below (6th floor). Also, it seems like this may be the only top floor radiator for the whole building (35K sq feet). If so, he was concerned that there is a lot of air and pressure getting vented through the this one radiator.

He’s going to do some investigating, but here’s a picture of the current valve.

I am wondering if there is something that could be done with the valve to improve things. A friend suggested a varivalve. Could that be helpful?

http://www.heat-timer.com/varivalve/

Paul_11

You could always install a Gorton #2 vent on the piping just before the radiator. This will increase the speed of the steam getting to your floor

Fred

The Varivalves are too aggressive for a radiator. They may cause the steam to race across the radiator and only heat the top or bottom of the radiator. They may also spit water. It sounds like something you could do is put a Main vent at the top of the riser that feeds that radiator, before it turns into that radiator. That will speed the venting of air out of the riser and not depend on the smaller radiator vent to exhaust all of that air before getting steam. Should speed things up a lot.

Jamie Hall

Paul said:

You could always install a Gorton #2 vent on the piping just before the radiator. This will increase the speed of the steam getting to your floor

Sounds like a plan to me...

Mike Cascio

What kind of vent is on the radiator? A slower one may stop this problem.

biglebowski99

Thanks Gents!

It sounds like adding or replacing the radiator valve may speed up the delayed heating. Would it also potentially help with the loud banging we hear for about 30 secs when the steam first gets to the radiator? Since that is the biggest concern.

PS, Mike: I posted a picture of the current valve in my last post.

Jamie Hall

Won't help the banging. That's from condensate in the runout to that radiator colliding with an elbow or the valve right at the radiator. Goes away when the runout is up to temperature, eh?