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Loud whistling & water spitting on Vari-Valve, 4th fl apartment single pipe steam

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snootyusher
snootyusher Member Posts: 32
edited November 2018 in Strictly Steam
I'm on the 4th floor (top floor) of a smallish apartment building with single pipe steam heating. My living room radiator is medium sized (about 1.25 feet long with 7 "segments" ), and is equipped with a Vari Valve vent.

Overnight it often whistles high-pitched & very loudly. If I go to the valve and slide it around while this occurs, water spits out and the whistling ceases. At 4am, this is not a lot of fun.

I want to replace this vent, and looking around this very helpful site it looks like a Gorton's C might do the job. Does that sound right, or does someone have a better recommendation? Previously, IIRC, this vent had a Maid o Mist C vent before the landlord replaced it with the adjustable.

Thank you!

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  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,286
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    Might well do the job. You might also suggest to the landlord that they could lower the pressure on the system -- but they won't listen.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    Also make sure that the radiator has a slight pitch back towards the pipe. It may be holding some water. You can use quarters or any other shim under the two feet furthest from the steam pipe side to get pitch and allow condensate to flow back down the pipe. Vari-Valves are not great. They vent to fast. The Gorton, Vent-Rite #1 and Hoffman #1A are all good vents.
  • snootyusher
    snootyusher Member Posts: 32
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    Jamie Hall said:

    Might well do the job. You might also suggest to the landlord that they could lower the pressure on the system -- but they won't listen.

    Yeah, they definitely won't! I've brought it up before. They are otherwise good landlords, and they live in the building, so I guess I'm fortunate to have the problem of too much heat rather than not enough.
  • snootyusher
    snootyusher Member Posts: 32
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    Fred said:

    Also make sure that the radiator has a slight pitch back towards the pipe. It may be holding some water. You can use quarters or any other shim under the two feet furthest from the steam pipe side to get pitch and allow condensate to flow back down the pipe. Vari-Valves are not great. They vent to fast. The Gorton, Vent-Rite #1 and Hoffman #1A are all good vents.

    Yes, I do have it pitched with a wooden shim and some quarters already, but possibly could go up another $1.00

    And yes, I think a large part of the issue is the speed - the air is pushing out SO FAST when it's whistling.

    Does the "C" size seem like the right size based on the prior Maid-o-Mist? Based on what I can research looks like the sizes across brands seem pretty similar, but I'm a layman.

    Thanks!
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    The Gorton C vents at about .27 CFM which is about twice as fast as a Hoffman 1A or Vent-rite #, at their highest setting. That may be too fast for your radiator but if the system pressure is high, that vent may quiet your whistling some.
  • snootyusher
    snootyusher Member Posts: 32
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    Fred said:

    The Gorton C vents at about .27 CFM which is about twice as fast as a Hoffman 1A or Vent-rite #, at their highest setting. That may be too fast for your radiator but if the system pressure is high, that vent may quiet your whistling some.

    Thanks so much; I went with the Hoffman 1A. Probably worth the few extra bucks.

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