Air vent spitting water

joeshrapnel

First, Hi! I'm new to the forum. My name's Peter and I've owned my home for 25 years. We have single-pipe radiators, 6 of them in our home. I just went around and replaced vents and leaking valves on the radiators. I'm semi-familiar with how steam heat works, but I'm by no means an expert. So I thought that everything would be fine with the system when I repaired everything. Now the radiator in our kitchen spits and bangs when the heat comes on. On top of that, it seems like there is a lot more water than there should be in the pipe. And the water is brown and staining everything and now it is brown in the sight glass. Haven't seen it operating to say if the water was bouncing. The boiler is about 6 years old and I'm pretty sure the people who installed it skimmed the boiler. As a matter of fact I'd be shocked if they didn't as they were pretty thorough. The line that feeds the kitchen line is copper, the only one in the line. I was wondering if that line has water in it that is not draining. The line is 1.5" copper. I will take some pictures and post them if need be. All the other radiators operate fine. The house is not a large house.. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Oh, and the boiler is a Weil McLain Gold. Thanks!

delcrossv

Is that copper line connected to the spitting radiator?
Are the new vents you installed the same as the previous ones? What vents did you install?

dabrakeman

You have had this boiler for 6 years. What was the working state of the system before you did your valve repairs and vent changes and why did you do them? In particular relative to the kitchen radiator what all did you do that may have had any impact on that radiator or its supply line? If you changed the supply valve is the radiator pitched the same, same overall height, could the valve be not opening fully? Sure sounds like there is water accumulating in that copper takeoff that wasn't accumulating before.

Pictures always help.

joeshrapnel

The system was running great. The reason I changed the vents and the valve was because I was losing water and the furnace was shutting off. I was going away for a few days and needed to make sure the system would keep heating with no problems. Yes the copper line goes to the kitchen radiator. When I reinstalled the kitchen radiator I put half a bubble pitch back to the valve so it would drain. The vents I installed to all radiators were Vent Rite.

dabrakeman

Can you trace back the copper takeoff to see if it has proper slope and no sag?  Check upstream of the copper takeoff as well. 

joeshrapnel

Yes the copper is exposed so I can check the pitch.

dabrakeman

I wouldn't expect the pitch to change from after you replaced the valve to before unless the new valve is taller and thus pushing the supply pipe down further. Sometimes the supply pipe will drop into the floor some when the radiator is disconnected allowing some water to enter the pipe from a collection source further upstream that might also change angle slightly (temporarily) during the process.

delcrossv

Pictures would really help.

STEAMFITTER597

Peter: track your steam loop in the basement. This sounds like your end of main vents have failed. Steam exits boiler and loops around basement returning to boiler return manifold. There will be big vents. One for each loop.  If you have a wet return before it drops it will have a main vent.  Bigger is better. Always keep steam pressure below 2psig.