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Steam heat help - “cold” upper floors

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Debaser517
Debaser517 Member Posts: 5
in Strictly Steam
Thanks to the posters here for helping earlier. The latest installment in my heating saga is that all the rads are working on the 5th floor now (yay!)

They heat up to about 165-180 within 20 minutes from cold. The largest one gets to around 190-210 after an hour or so.

This is sufficient for the apartment.

The issue is that the 2nd floor (where the thermostat is) has two radiators with a variable vent (screw set to 1/8) and a #6 on the other radiator, but it gets very warm there. The thermostat is set to 72 and the boiler will kick off before the upper floors are properly heated.

I insulated all the windows upstairs and shut off the boiler for a few hours and the temp remained fairly constant.

Any ideas what is going on?

Comments

  • gfrbrookline
    gfrbrookline Member Posts: 753
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    The vents are way to fast, replace them with Gorton #4 or Hoffman 40's.

    You may do yourself a huge favor if you replace all of your vents with Hoffman 40's and ensure you have adequate main venting.
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    What "variable" vent is on those two radiators? If it is a Varivalve, they vent too fast and will cause the rooms to get hot. Replace them. If it is a Hoffman 1A, turn them down from #6 to about 3 or 4.
  • Debaser517
    Debaser517 Member Posts: 5
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    > @Fred said:
    > What "variable" vent is on those two radiators? If it is a Varivalve, they vent too fast and will cause the rooms to get hot. Replace them. If it is a Hoffman 1A, turn them down from #6 to about 3 or 4.

    Hate to say it but it’s a “Plumbers Edge” from Home Depot. I had a #4 Maid o mist I was going to put there, but it was defective out of the box and the Home Depot one was the only other one I had that would limit the vent size that far.

    The radiator it’s on heats up pretty quickly, so maybe it’s not really limiting anything? The vent hole left outside of the cap is tiny... the same size as the hole on the #4.

    You think it’s worth ordering some Hoffman vents? If so which? the 40 or the 1A?
  • Fred
    Fred Member Posts: 8,542
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    @Debaser517 , throw those HD vent away and get something that works. The HD vents, if they work, they never consistently work. I would not invest in replacing all the radiator vents because two radiators don't heat. Put either a Vent-Rite #1 or a Hoffman 1A on those radiators. Both of those vents are adjustable and will allow you to vent up or down as needed without changing them out.

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