Vacuum Breakers

dyoung9121

I take care of a 2 pipe steam system in an older house. There are several problems I face that could be resolved if the homeowner wanted to pay for it. One problem I have is that it takes a while for steam to get to the highest point on the 3rd floor and the air vent up there hisses like crazy. So I realize I am not venting enough air. There are 2 vacuum breakers in the main and 1 Hoffman 75 at the end but don’t know if it works or not. Would it be better to replace the vacuum breakers with Gorton # 1’s. There is a breaker on the header and 1 halfway down the main. The main is probably every bit of 100 feet long and then splits.

neilc

someone added those vacuum breakers for a reason, (to relieve vacuum hiss after the fire), wonder why?*

make sure the 75 is venting, or clean and or replace,
(can)you could add an antler, and more vent, at the 75,
or if the far breaker is reasonably close to the end of its main, there,

post picture of vent and breaker,
also at the boiler, and of any special looking devices,
maybe someone will see something and identify if the system had been booggerred,
*(questioning the breaker need)

Jamie Hall

If this is really a two pipe system (not a two pipe with air vents system) then there should be no need for any vents on the radiators, only on the dry returns and, if there are no crossover traps, on the mains.

That said... vacuum breakers probably aren't hurting anything. They're not helping either. I would use at least one Gorton #2 near the end of that 100 foot main -- you might even need two. And any other main should have at least a Gorton #2.

The dry returns should also have Gorton #2s on them, though if they join at the boiler before they drop you might get away with just one at that location.

Now stray air vents on radiators may indicate that the traps on those radiators are not functioning properly. That would be something to check and fix, as poorly functioning or simply non-functioning traps can really mess a system up.

mattmia2

Some pictures of the radiators and what is connected to them too. It sounds like this being a vapor system someone did something stupid to is a real possibility.

dyoung9121

Okay, I was thinking of replacing that 75 at the end of 1 fork with a gorton 2. It is very hard to get to and might not get done til after heating season. The riser nipple is pretty rusted and Murphy’s law says it’s going to break off in that bushing and then I’ll really have problem. Where the mains end is in a crawl space that isn’t really conducive to working pipe wrenches. This house is pre 1900. The radiators have no air vents, just steam traps. Some work and some don’t. They don’t want to pay to fix. The mains in the crawl space are all uninsulated. That’s approximately 25’ of each fork that’s uninsulated and I know this is a big issue but they don’t want to pay but they complain about the oil bills. These are oil fired boilers. The mains used to be insulated with asbestos. They removed that years ago and said to h$#& with the crawl space. It takes a long time for the 2nd floor radiators to heat up. Also, I can see the one main vent on the left fork. I tried to crawl over to the right fork but I’m too big and even if I could, I don’t think I could work any wrenches. But there has to be a vent back there. Also there is a crossover trap on the left fork and it is working. There are Hoffman 75’s on the dry returns…

mattmia2

bad steam traps are orders of magnitude more of an issue than uninsulated piping.

Neild5

They will have pay for one of two things, fix all the steam traps, or the wasted heating oil.  Read Dan's response in the post "Your help please"

EBEBRATT-Ed

"They don’t want to pay to fix."

Then I think "they" have a big problem. What do they expect you to do?

I would get whoever is the decision maker is on the phone and explain that they are paying weather they want to or not.

They will pay a high fuel bill continuously or pay someone once to fix the problem