Adding Gorton #1 to main

RuffinoVino

I want to add another vent to the main and before I remove the plug I wanted some advice on how long the boiler should have stopped running before I remove the plug? I just want to make sure there is no pressure built up that I should be worried about?

Jamie Hall

Not a pressure problem -- the pressure will be gone in a few minutes at most. Might be kind of warm, though...

RuffinoVino

Got it. Thanks. Also, if I had a 3rd vent will this now potentially make the steam move much faster to the radiators on the branch it's on leaving less steam to go to the other end of the house? Or do this just allow for overall more venting for the entire system?

Waher

Shut the boiler off and wait until the plug is cool enough to touch with your bare hands without burning. Usually all of the steam in the mains will have condensed and drained back to the boiler within 10-15 minutes. You don't want to pull a plug and have hot condensate pour out on you.

ethicalpaul

We'd have to know a lot more about your system.

RuffinoVino

Thanks. Any thoughts on the second question above?

ethicalpaul

If you have two mains, the speed of them filling with steam at the start of a heating cycle will be determined separately by the venting on each of them.

RuffinoVino

The main that I currently have 2 Gorton #1's is about 32' from the boiler. There is 1 radiator directly above those vents in the living room and 1 more on the second floor directly above that one and one more about 10' to the side of that one. This radiator is in the smallest room and furthest from the boiler and although it's surrounded by interior walls(other than 1) it stays relatively warm but rarely ever heats up more than a portion of first section (only warmly never very hot). The other side of the boiler has about a 8' run before it branches to the living room 1 radiator directly above it. This main does not have a vent. Then there is a bedroom above that radiator and one more radiator in a bathroom about 10' from that one. All radiators get equally pretty hot except for that one small farthest radiator. 

So I want to know if add that 3rd vent to that main if it should help out?

ethicalpaul

That was too confusing for me to understand, but it sounded like the radiator in question has a supply pipe on one side, and then on its other side it is feeding another radiator upstairs?

If that is the case, then the steam might just be passing through on its way up to the other radiator. It's not a good scenario, but you might be able to make it work by adjusting the venting slower upstairs (if I'm even understanding what you're saying).

Remember too the important thing isn't if a particular radiator is getting fully hot, the important thing is the comfort in each room. Use that to guide your changes.