Good Problem - New Boiler Fixed Radiator Balance

goonsquad

Hi All. My basement finishing progresses on my 1929 house. In a separate thread, I mentioned that I'd be getting a new boiler since my 1991 boiler was leaking. Well, we had it installed on Friday, and to my surprise, my radiator balancing issues have been miraculously solved.

My home is around 2500 sq ft spread across 3 living floors currently (ground, 2nd, finished attic). Until now, I had an issue where each floor you went up, you lost 3-4 degrees. So 72F on the first floor made it 68 upstairs, and 64 on the third floor. I had chalked this up to, what I assumed were a couple causes:

• Improper venting, i.e., needed to fine tune vents to get more venting up top
  
• Worse insulation on the upper floors
  
• Heat loss from lack of basement pipe insulation causing steam not to rise to the upper floors
  

Well, I haven't yet addressed any of the above (although point 3 I'm in the process of addressing), and yet, after installing the new boiler, I'm now miraculously getting almost perfectly even heat throughout the house. I can't figure out why that would be. The old boiler "worked" well enough in the sense that it would run until the thermostat (on the first floor) reached 72. What on earth else would have changed with the new radiator to heat things so much more evenly?

Jeff

Ironman

The old one could have been improporley sized for the radiation. Or the pressure was set wrong...or the piping was wrong...or any number of other things.

goonsquad

I'll have the ask the contractor these questions of course. The header was re-built. This is probably standard practice I would assume. But parts of the header looked in bad shape. I suppose this isn't considered header, but the boiler drain couplings were very rusted. This is probably a function of remaining wet for X years. Not sure the same problem would have existed in the steam header (since it would have stayed dry), but perhaps it's possible those were obstructed / corroded.

I do know that the new pressure is set to 1 lb. No idea what the old boiler was set to.

Jamie Hall

Amazing what dry steam and a properly sized and functioning boiler can do...