Help with steam heat valve

evshul

Hi all, hoping someone can help. I live in a cooperative apartment in Queens, NYC, built in 1952. I own my unit but most heating repairs/maintenance fall within the responsibility of the building. I have constant problems with the steam release valves in all my rooms. No matter how many times they change the valves, they all seem to be "faulty" (at least, this is the superintendents explanation). I had three replaced in the last week because they were continuously (and loudly) blowing out hot steam for a good 10 minutes at a time. This would occur once per hours or so. In one room, he changed the valve and the brand new one did the same thing. So, he replaced it again and now the new valve WHISTLES extremely loud. I can't sleep with this and they tell me this is normal. From what I understand, a well tuned steam systems should be silent. In addition, the entire apartment has a relatively high humidity in colder months. This is partly due to old windows and poorly insulated walls which causes condensation on the windows. The windows are a separate issue which I'm trying to have replaced. At any rate, the humidity can go up as high as 60-75% at times when the heat is running and I can't help but think there is at least SOME relation to the steam heat.

I'm at the point where I want to call in my own independent steam specialist and just pass the bill on to the building. Before I do this though, I just want to get some opinions if I'm on the right track and if I truly have a problem or if this is all normal and I'm just overly sensitive. Any thoughts? I have a video of the most recent whistling issue here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/y38biW3AU3HKSZMt7

Thanks for any help!

Jamie Hall

If I were a betting man, I'd bet that the building operates on a heat timer of some kind, and that the steam pressure is much too high. Like much too high.

KC_Jones

Also loose windows and drafts will cause low humidity in winter not high.

The valves must be releasing a ton of steam. First thing no steam should come out ever. Second as Jamie said the pressure is too high, it should be as low as possible to distribute steam. You didn’t say how tall the building is, but I’d speculate you don’t need more than 1-2 PSI in your building.

You are correct the system should be silent. You most likely have people in charge that don’t know what they are doing. If I was you I would demand either someone new or they call in a specialist.

Changing the vents won’t fix anything.

bosJared

> I had three replaced in the last week because they were continuously (and loudly) blowing out hot steam for a good 10 minutes at a time.

This is 100% not good. Steam should never be coming out of air vents. The vents should close, and if they don't then either the vent is faulty or something else is going on.

> So, he replaced it again and now the new valve WHISTLES extremely loud. I can't sleep with this and they tell me this is normal.

It might be normal for really cheap air vents, but it's not "normal" across the board. You may hear a very, very faint sound of air escaping from the valves during normal operation, until they close. Then you should hear nothing, until they re-open, at which point you will hear a very faint sound of air escaping again (maybe a bit of sputtering with water, which is not ideal but happens sometimes).

> This is partly due to old windows and poorly insulated walls which causes condensation on the windows.

Winter is the dryer season. If your old windows / poorly insulated walls were the cause, then your indoor area would be too dry, not too wet. Sounds about right, that it's probably your steam system. You can get a hygrometer that will measure humidity; put it near to the radiator and see if it changes when the heat is running.

neilc

We need to start inviting the supers and building owners into these threads.
The OP, and all the other tenants we try to help keep getting stymied by the boiler room.
Guaranteed high pressure at the boiler.
And guaranteed it is wasting the cost of fuel to get that pressure that high.
Show this to your super, and to the building board, that IS NOT controlling the boiler, properly, and wasting your money.
Have them write in to this thread and become learned.

JohnNY

You need someone like me to walk through the building with the super and show him what things are, what's wrong, and how to keep it all running in a way that management doesn't have to field calls from angry residents every time the heating season rolls around.

Steamhead

The problem with these management companies is they refuse to spend money on all but the cheapest stuff. So that's why they just replace air vents instead of having Steam Guys look things over.

nicholas bonham-carter

Supers like that will feed erroneous information to the board about the system, calculated to promote their eternal job retention. This consists of such things like:
1. Hey it’s steam-hello!
2. It’s supposed to make noise so you know it’s working.
3. Your lucky I am here, as no one would understand this old system, and its controls as I do. A real engineer would charge so much more, and wouldn’t shovel snow.
4. If the gas bill in the next identical building is so much lower, it’s because their meter is reading low-lucky devils!
5. Let’s install this Heatimer thingy, and we won’t have to spend five g’s on repiping the system, and our bill will be 25% less.—NBC