New home owner, New to steam heat

rshissler

The wife and I recently bought a fixer-upper from her family. It's a single story home with a single pipe 2 main steam heat system. We only lived in the home for maybe a month or 2 last winter and I was busy with other projects to look at the system. I do remember the automatic feed kicking on 2 or 3 times a week even though I was draining to crap out of the bottom of the holding tank and filling it back to its mark.
So this year before winter hits I've been focusing on revamping the system and maintenance. So far I know all but 1 air vent leaks. So they all need to replaced. Going with Gorton brand.
My question is, down stairs on my main lines. I have 2 vents on each run. Each vent is only a few feet from the other. Is this normal and/or necessary? I provided pictures to show what I mean. I know my pipes need to be wrapped haha they removed the old asbestos wrapping when they did a cleaning of the basement for me.

Steamhead

How long are the steam mains and what pipe size are they?

In the first picture, the bushing screwed into the last radiator tee is causing water to back up behind it. This is probably causing banging. Have this fixed before replacing vents, or the new vents won't last long.

Where are you located?

rshissler

The first picture (one with the two vents within a foot of each other) is about a 20 to 25ft run of 2" pipe. The other is about maybe 10 feet of 2".

I'm from Northeastern Pa

BobC

Don't ignore Steamhead's advice about getting rid of that reducer, it should not be there and was probably used because that is all they had on the truck at the time.

That said the existing vents in the basement are way to small, you will need a minimum of 2ea Gorton #1's on the 20 ft main and one #1 on the 10 ft main - more would be nice.

Bob

gerry gill

Also flood test your boiler. Fill the boiler a little higher than the boiler and see if it leaks. 3 times a week adding water is excessive. I serviced a one pipe system yesterday in a 100 year old home that only used 6 gallons all last season.

rshissler

I'll give test the boiler today after work. The automatic feed is reading 218... It's a newer furnace but nothing was taken care of and the basement was extremely damp and mold infested before we cleaned it all and water proofed it. there's a considerable amount of rust/rot on the back of the outside case.

Is the boiler passes that I'll continue first with replacing that reducer bushing. Hopefully I can get the pipe undone.

rshissler

When I got home today I fired up the furnace and left it get hot and checked all the pipes for leaks. I found none. But I did find out that none of main vents work, as in they don't even bleed air, they're stuck shut.

Shut the furnace off for a few hours and then did a flood test. Filled it to the top of the sight glass and left it sit for half an hour. Took off all the panels I could and still couldn't find any leaks.

So I guess I'll continue on with replacing that reducer and then vents.

jason2018

Hopefully there is a union near that reducing bushing so you can attempt to unthread that guy. If you’ve never worked on steam before your in for a real treat! Easiest route maybe to just cut the pipe, get a pipe threader and repipe accordingly. Just my two cents.