Residential Single Pipe Steam Help

zaneithan

My wife and I just recently moved into our first home in NY. The building was supposedly built in 1890 and has a single pipe steam system fed by a natural gas boiler in the basement (Crown Jamaica Series, Model - JFB-52EID, 150MBH input, 122MBH output). It's a two story building (plus attic and basement) with 4 rooms upstairs (plus bathroom) and 3 rooms downstairs (LR, DR, Kitchen) (plus bathroom & entryway). Approximately 1700sq ft. total.

During our home owner's inspection it was noted that the main piping in the basement had asbestos for insulation. We had this removed prior to moving in and currently the pipes are bare.

Prior to us moving in the heating system seemed to work somewhat decently, however, I suspected it needed some adjustment since the temperature upstairs is approx. 5-6 degrees lower than downstairs all the time. Now after we've moved in it seems to be a bit more troublesome with even the downstairs feeling cold and the radiators only getting halfway hot. Upstairs feels even colder with only some of the radiators getting hot at all (and marginally). There's also now some hammering.

I've already ordered the lost art of steam heating and we got steam heat! but they aren't supposed to come until next week and my wife and I are cold.

Where I'm at now outside of this and where I'm hoping for some guidance or help:

1) I know I need to reinsulate the main pipes as I'm essentially heating the unfinished basement and plan to tackle this soon with 2" fiberglass insulation. I'm hoping this takes care of the hammering at a minimum since that wasn't there before the asbestos was removed.

2) After some poking around in the basement I found (2) main vents which I suspect are either no longer working or are too small. Both of these are Eaton-Dole No 4 vents and appear to have been there a long time.

I'm not sure what vent to replace these with and need some help with this. From what I've read on here so far Gorton #1 & 2s seem to be a good choice but I don't want to just blindly buy these (outside of knowing they are fast) without some guidance. I'm working on trying to measure the main piping lengths but there's a jumble of it going in all different directions so that's a bit difficult.

3) I took a look at the pressuretrol on the boiler and noted it was set to a cut in of 2psi with a differential of 1 (so 3psi cut out?). After some reading I adjusted this down to .5psi cut in and left the differential at 1 (so 1.5psi cut out?). Is this a good starting point that won't just cause issues with the vents?

4) Most of the radiators have Hoffman 1a's on them. In an attempt to help the situation I set the downstairs (larger) radiators to the slowest setting and the upstairs radiators (smaller) to the fastest setting. I don't plan to do much with these until I can get the main vents sorted out and some insulation on the piping but since we're cold I thought I'd at least give it a try. All of the shutoff valves at these are confirmed to be fully opened as well.

Thoughts? Advice?

Backup Details:
-9 radiators total (4 first floor, 5 second floor), larger radiators on first floor
-2 main vents on main piping both with Eaton-Dole No 4 vents currently on them.
-Radiators only getting half hot (downstairs) or not hot at all (upstairs)
-Temperature differential between upstairs and downstairs (68deg vs 62deg)

Jamie Hall

You're on the right track with all of what you are doing -- and I realise that the big Gortons are pricey, but they do do the job well -- and it's almost impossible to over vent a main line.

zaneithan

So you think going with (2) Gorton #2s won't cause issues?

Canucker

It won't cause issues, if breaking something is your concern. Once you get your mains vented properly, it's probably going to reveal more balance problems but as @Jamie Hall pointed out, you're on the right track to getting it fixed, i.e.; heating evenly

zaneithan

thank you both @Canucker , @Jamie Hall