My sons room is cold

moldbandit

Trying to figure out why my sons room is not getting warm. I have a 2 story colonial. His room is on the second floor. It is a 10’x10’ room with a 6 section tubular radiator 23” height, 4 tube wide connected to 1” pipe coming from floor. There are 3 mains in the house, which his room is connected to shortest main 20’ with a G2 on it. All the radiator vents were replaced with new vent rite #1’s to try and balance the system better. I noticed that the vent on radiator was stuck closed and would not let air out so radiator would not heat up. So I changed the vent, and the radiator would heat up after a long while, but not to the point where the room heats up. All the other radiators heat up and work fine. 

Is the radiator too small for the room? 

Is 1” pipe too small to carry enough steam quickly? 

Should I use a different vent other than vent rite? 

Any help is much appreciated. His room is coldest in house and takes longest for steam to reach even though it’s on the shortest main and 2nd or 3rd closest radiator to boiler. 

nicholas bonham-carter

See if you can verify that steam is getting to all the other radiators at the same time. You may have to slow down the other radiator vents, as they may be stealing steam away from the slow rad.
What sort of main vents are on the other two mains. If you have a low pressure gauge, see how the main venting is doing as the air is first being pushed out, (less than 2 ounces back pressure).
Is your thermostat set for steam, at 1 CPH?—NBC

Jamie Hall

What is the actual EDR of that radiator? The maximum that can be fed in one pipe steam with a 1 inch pipe is only 28 EDR. Then the next question is -- what is that Ventrite set to (they're adjustable)? And what are the rest of them set to? If they are all set the same, you could try slowing some of the others down and speeding that one up.

neilc

is there a supply valve and is it fully open ?
picture ?

moldbandit

@nicholas bonham-carter all the radiator vents on main floor are turned down to 3 & 4 settings. Upstairs rads set to 6 along with my sons room. I tried setting at 7 & 8 but only top of radiator would heat up. I also lowered his room rad to 5 and it would not heat up at all. At 6 setting it heats but doesn’t get hot (if that makes any sense). I have a low pressure gauge 0-3 and it never goes above .5 and I have big mouths on other mains. And thermostat is set for 1 CPH. 

@Jamie Hall the EDR of that rad is 12 if my math is correct. And I’ve lowered settings of other rads and they still heat up faster and get rooms warm before my sons room. 

I skimmed the boiler and cleaned pigtail (which was not clogged) 
I don’t know what else to do to get his room warm aside from a space heater.

moldbandit

@neilc I have a brand new valve I put on and it is fully open.

kcopp

What @neilc meant is the shut off valve open? I have on occasion seen these be partially stuck closed. Sometimes the disc on the inside falls off and blocks steam flow.

Steamhead

moldbandit said:

@nicholas bonham-carter all the radiator vents on main floor are turned down to 3 & 4 settings. Upstairs rads set to 6 along with my sons room. I tried setting at 7 & 8 but only top of radiator would heat up. I also lowered his room rad to 5 and it would not heat up at all. At 6 setting it heats but doesn’t get hot (if that makes any sense). I have a low pressure gauge 0-3 and it never goes above .5 and I have big mouths on other mains. And thermostat is set for 1 CPH. 

@Jamie Hall the EDR of that rad is 12 if my math is correct. And I’ve lowered settings of other rads and they still heat up faster and get rooms warm before my sons room. 

I skimmed the boiler and cleaned pigtail (which was not clogged) 
I don’t know what else to do to get his room warm aside from a space heater.

Is the vent mounted at the very top of the radiator end section, or lower down? Post a pic if you can.

moldbandit

I put some foil behind radiator to try and deflect any heat back to room

Jamie Hall

If that really does work out to an EDR of 12 I have to admit that I'm not surprised that that room is a bit chilly. That isn't much heat output for a room that size.

neilc

?
go to all the other rads and slow them down 1 # on their vents

BobC

A lot of new radiator shutoff valves are shorter than the old ones were. A nipple might have been used to get that new valve up to the right height. This could result in a horizontal pipe being sloped a little backwards and that might pool water and collapse incoming steam before it gets to that rad.

Go down cellar and use a level to make sure the piping has pitch so water can find it's way to the boiler. Use that same level to make sure the radiator is pitched so water finds it's way back to the supply pipe. Then use a 2x4 and a fulcrum to see if you can lift that whole radiator up. Then put a shim or piece of plywood under all 4 legs, that might be enough to correct any horizontal pipe pitch problems under the floor on that BR radiator.

Bob

ethicalpaul

Is the radiator getting "steam hot"?

I like where @BobC is thinking above. I would suspect bad pitch causing a water trap.

If the radiator does eventually get "steam hot" during long calls for heat, that would also point to this issue.

I have radiators about this size getting fed by 1" pipe in the exterior wall and they get hot fast.