Pressuretrol main set to 5 psi and gauge reads 5 psi

Markinboston

Greetings, this is my first winter with steam heat and I've already learned a lot from lurking here, but now I have a question in haven't found answered already.

My pressuretrol "main" is set to 5 psi. Is that wrong? Also I noticed that when the system is running the pressure gauge reads around 5 psi. I've read that these gauges are often incorrect, but the boiler is only about 2 years old.

Thanks for any insight

JUGHNE

Pressure set way too high.
Turn the screws on the top until the right side drops down to just below 2.
The left one should go down to .5

Gauge is probably correct.
But lowering the pressure to below 2, you will see that the gauge barely moves.
They are required for this range of 0-30, but are really useless for practical use.

You can add a 0-3 PSI gauge next to it with a little piping.

System works better with less pressure.

Markinboston

Thanks very much!

I made the changes you suggested and the system seems to be working much better: previously one of my varivalve vents was spitting water and it hasn't done that after the change. Also, on a different radiator water used to leak out of a the seam near the top of the valve which connects it to the pipe, have not seen that since. Finally my danfoss thermostatic vent seems to be working, where previously it seemed like the higher pressure was overwhelming it.

Should I try to go even lower? I remember reading that .5 psi is all I should need?

HVACNUT

Markinboston said:

Should I try to go even lower? I remember reading that .5 psi is all I should need?

Yes. And 1 on the differential 

ethicalpaul

To go much lower you would need a new boiler. Your boiler is probably oversized and that's why it builds pressure. A correctly-sized boiler (all too rare) won't build any significant pressure and that is the goal.

Jamie Hall

Markinboston said:

Thanks very much!

I made the changes you suggested and the system seems to be working much better: previously one of my varivalve vents was spitting water and it hasn't done that after the change. Also, on a different radiator water used to leak out of a the seam near the top of the valve which connects it to the pipe, have not seen that since. Finally my danfoss thermostatic vent seems to be working, where previously it seemed like the higher pressure was overwhelming it.

Should I try to go even lower? I remember reading that .5 psi is all I should need?

If it ain't borke, don't fix it. Steady as you go...