Are heattimer varivalves any good

acl10

Are heattimer varivalves any good

Mike Cascio

The short answer is NO, the long answer is that these vents are way too fast for radiator vents and usually cause more good than bad. You should be venting the mains FAST with a gorton #2 or a big mouth and the radiators slow. They should use (in order of venting capacity) gorton 4, hoffman 40, ventrite 11, ventrite 1, gorton 5, dole 1a and finally gorton 6. You shouldnt need a radiator vent faster than that. Thats what the main vents are for.

Mad Dog_2

They don't do what they claim to. The adjustment doesn't regulate at all Great company but for radiator vents, they are not my first choice. Mad Dog

Fred

Varivalves vent too aggressively, as Mike said. If you don't want to vent radiators with fixed venting vents and trial and error, the Vent-Rite #1 and the Hoffman #1A are both very good adjustable vents. Once you install them, you can easily adjust them to vent at an appropriate rate for each radiator/room to balance the system .

Mike Cascio

Also they are thermostatic vents. This means they will have a tendency to spit if any water gets near the vent. Most vents have a float that closes to water.

acl10

The only place I put a varivalve on is on the riser in my kitchen and its working well. Since its a riser pipe no water is spitting out. On all the other radiators I have Gortons and one hoffman 40

Mad Dog_2

Varivalves are very nice (great company), when a system is behaving. However, when you got wet steam, they will spit condensate across the room like a fish in a fountain. Mad Dog

dbrown

I've been using them for years with no spitting or hissing. I think they're pretty awesome actually. However, I do have pretty consistent gentle water hammer on most radiators and louder on one in particular. Not sure if it's vent related but it could be.

Mad Dog_2

When you have a system with wet steam, not only do they Not adjust, but they spout copious amounts of condensate. When a system is working pretty well, they are fine. Mad Dog