Steam heating woes. Advice needed

ihoop88

Hey all,

I just wanted to extend my thanks again to everyone who gave me advice in this thread. The local steam heating guru has been slammed with work (understandably, given what time of year it is) and subsequently has not been able to make it out to check out my system yet.

I will try to perform all recommended work on my system that I feel comfortable doing, namely installing a main vent and possibly a new pigtail.

The two problem radiators continue to be problems. They heat up about 15 minutes slower than every other radiator in the system, and only after a TON of what seems be water sloshing around and water hammer. It almost sounds as if steam needs to break through a huge pocket of water to get to these radiators.....Once if finally does, they do heat up.

If the local "guru" still has packed schedule for the next two weeks I may try to find someone else. If anyone has recommendations for a steam heat specialist around Philadelphia please shoot me a PM. I have also considered using the "find a contractor" feature of this website, which surprisingly only turned up two companies.

-Ian

nicholas bonham-carter

Have you tried raising up the radiator a bit to give any horizontal under the floor more slope?--NBC

acwagner

@ihoop88 even what appear to be trivial corrections can make huge improvements on a steam system performance. Definitely make the changes you feel comfortable doing. I know screwing around with your heating system in winter can be intimidating. I've been there, too. If something is outside your comfort zone, try posting here first asking for a step by step process, what tools you need, etc. I'm confident members on this forum will post instructions to help guide you through it.

That said, when you get your new main vent post here before installing it. Water hammer can damage a vent, but there are piping best practices to help mitigate that risk. It's likely someone removed the main vent and replaced it with a plug because it kept getting damaged by the water hammer.