Home depot radiator vents hissing thru entire steam cycle

branimal

I bought 4 steam radiator vents to replace some older vents. 3 out of 4 seem to stay open and hiss loudly during the whole heating cycle.

Anyone have experience with these? What brand do you guys prefer?

ethicalpaul

They are junk. I buy a lot from HD but never vents

branimal

ethicalpaul said:

They are junk. I buy a lot from HD but never vents

What brand do you buy? Is the Maid-o-mist brand any good?

dabrakeman

Yes, you will be far better off with the MoM's than the HD specials. They are also adjustable with the different caps. Some will say nothing but Gortons. Others Hoffman.

Is your system currently pretty well balanced? What are on the other radiators currently?

ethicalpaul

branimal said:

What brand do you buy? Is the Maid-o-mist brand any good?

Yes but make sure you aren’t getting a copy. I get all vents from supplyhouse.com

MoM and Gorton are nearly identical (I’ve looked inside and used both). I like both.

MoM are crimped not soldered and that freaks some people out but I’ve not seen one leak.

MoM have interchangeable (not adjustable) orifices which provides for easy swapping during balancing.

MoM are less $$ but I notice the price is closer in recent years.

I'm going to have to cash in my 401(k) and try a Hoffman some day, If I was speccing, marking up, and reselling vents for a living, I might pick Hoffman 😅

gfrbrookline

Gordons are the best quality for the dollar, you can by MOM but they will fail and need to be replaced sooner. Spend the money up front and save money in the long run.

Do you have any recollection of what vents were where when you pulled the old ones off?

branimal

dabrakeman said:

Is your system currently pretty well balanced? What are on the other radiators currently?

That's a great question .... I have no idea if the system is balanced or not. I started reading Dan Holohan's "Lost Art of Steam Heating" and never got very far. I need to get back to it.

The other radiators are still running on old vents. I pulled one this morning - it's a Maid-O-Mist.

nde

If those are similar to old HD usav vents they are adjustable by turning the cap. It could be there are set to wide open and you can adjust down. Not the best vent but I have seen some work fine for years.

branimal

nde said:

If those are similar to old HD usav vents they are adjustable by turning the cap. It could be there are set to wide open and you can adjust down. Not the best vent but I have seen some work fine for years.

I've tried the newer HD adjustable vents. They would let steam out of the air hole.

EdTheHeaterMan

Home depot radiator vents hissing thru entire steam cycle

I believe they are showing a dislike for the vents you purchased from LOWES last year.
if you get enough of them, The LOWES vents will start Booo ing the HD Vents

BobC

My local hdwr store used to sell those, the adjustment didnothing on the two I had and they strted to pass steam within a year. i ended up replacing everything with MOM about 7=8 years ago and have not had a problem since.

Some now say the MOM are now crap. all i can say is they worked without issue when I bought mine and were less than half the price.