Valve recommendation? One room in house not getting warm?

JD10211983

Hi - I hope everyone is staying warm! I have gas steam heat. All of the rooms are getting fairly warm with the exception of my sons room. The radiator in his room is recessed into the wall and for lack of a better description has fins at the top - it is not a traditional cast iron radiator. It almost looks like a baseboard heater except it is not on the ground - it is raised like a radiator (picture below). It seems to heat up for a few seconds then cool down extremely quick. My daughter's room will be almost 10-15 degrees warmer than his at some points! I think his room may be the first room that gets heat when it kicks on... any ideas? does he simply need a better radiator? Picture below. Worth noting that we had switched the valve at the end to a slower release valve (hoffman #41) because the other one was shooting out too much water - could this have caused the extreme cool down in temperature in his room? if so - any recommendations on valves that will release more air, but not too much water??

BobC

That's a convector and they can really put out heat, the question is why is it only getting hot for a short time? make sure any dust on those fins is vacuumed of them.

First what kind of air vents are on the other radiators, if they are much larger in capacity than that #41 the team will favor the larger vents.

Second how fast does that convector get steam compared to the other radiators?

Next look at the piping under the floor that feeds the convector to see if any horizontal piping is sloped so waster can find it's way back to the boiler.

Bob

Ironman

You shouldn't change the vent size just because it was shooting out water. That's and indication that the vent is bad.

I'd go back with the same vent that's on other convectors of the same size in your house as a starting point.

Balanced venting is the key to having even heat on a one pipe system.

KC_Jones

First there really shouldn't be water there, for me that's indicative of problems elsewhere in the system.

If all your other radiation is cast iron then you are going to need to balance the system such that that convector gets steam first, so it maximizes the heating capacity. Cast iron has mass, that convector does not, so even after the system cuts out the cast iron will continue heating while that convector will go cold fairly quickly.

The basic issue is balance. What is your main venting like? What vents are on the other radiators? What does the boiler piping look like? I ask about the piping because of your comment about water and seeing that bowl under the vent end.

Pictures help with all of these questions.

ImYoungxD

In addition to the comments, I have convection heaters in two rooms. They are the first ones to heat up first then the radiators. Once the boiler is off, they cool down too fast and the room gets cold. I fixed this by adding an oil filled radiator in those two rooms and only turn it on when occupied.

ChicagoCooperator

I see a couple problems with the element itself:

1. The fins are bent blocking air floor, you'll need to straighten them out.

2. I think the element itself needs to be lower within the enclosure to get the needed airflor.

In addition to the problems mentioned above. It looks like somebody might have replaced the element at some point - it should probably sit on those brackets lower down. What does the cover look like?