Cleaning bigmouth vent

tkos115

Is there a guide or a "how to" video on how to clean a big mouth steam vent? Mine seems to be slow to close or sometimes still leaks a very little bit.

Fred

The faceplate unscrews. Take it off and rinse the element and the o-ring on the faceplate off. The o-ring is glued to the faceplate so don't try to remove it unless you see it is damaged. New O-Rings and a high temp RTV adhesive are available.

tkos115

Okay cool thanks, just water is good? Is it ok to use soap or would that not be needed or recommended? Just normal cleaning won't need anything to seal it back up after correct?

Fred

tkos115 said:

Okay cool thanks, just water is good? Is it ok to use soap or would that not be needed or recommended? Just normal cleaning won't need anything to seal it back up after correct?

Just water. Typically they only leak because a spec of crud blew into the unit and keeps the o-ring from sealing properly. No other sealant needed to reassemble.

tkos115

Great, thanks Fred. Will be tomorrow nights project after work..

Sailah

The vent should really not require any cleaning. If it's not sealing then I would get a new disc. There were some issues with the discs when we originally made them not having enough "juice" (alcohol and water) inside and thus they didn't have enough motive force to seal the plug against the O ring. I hope these have been corrected by now and new vents are sealing as they should.

To reset the vent back to original specs, you'd need the following:

It uses a silicone O ring (Dash # 115) https://www.mcmaster.com/9396k28

That O ring is held in place with a TINY amount of silicone sealant, Loctite 593 https://www.mcmaster.com/74945a65

The disc is somewhat special as it is a modified Mepco disc made for the 2E trap but with the plug from a 3C. Disc is secured with a tiny dab of red loctite on the threads but this is probably not necessary. You need a very thin 1/2" wrench to grab the disc hex.

tkos115

My vent is only about 4 or 5 months old and sits up about 6 or 7 inches above the main which may not be high enough. Unfortunately space is a factor and I can't pipe it any higher. I will try cleaning and see how it goes from there.