The case of the moving no heat call, this Friday's case

RayWohlfarth

This case was related to me by a tech who told me he had first hand knowledge of it. I'm not sure as I heard other techs tell me a similar story. To give you some back story, the building had a new boiler installed. The contractor and his lead installer fought with each other on the jobsite all the time. It wasnt a physical fight but close. The contractor fired the installer during the project and another installer was hired. The building had cast iron radiators with a pneumatic control valve.
During the first heating season, the servicing contractor got a call saying one room had no heat. When he arrived, he tried bleeding air but all he got was water. It wasnt an air problem. The radiators on each side of the cold one worked. The tech turned the pneumatic thermostat down and then up, listening for the air. When he felt the radiator, it was starting to get warm. The next day, another radiator was having the same problem. The tech turned the thermostat down and then up and the radiator started heating. On the third call, the tech told the owner how he fixed the issue and the owner did it. I couldn't believe what caused the issue. I'll let you know Friday at 6am

retiredguy

@Ray, did this problem continue or did it stop with the third radiator?

ratio

A cork or something in the steam line, it moved around depending on who was calling. Closing the valve allowed it to drop away drop that radiator & move somewhere else.

RayWohlfarth

@retiredguy it kept going lol

EdTheHeaterMan

How old is the building? If it is really old, it could be haunted! Then I would attribute the problem to RGF!

Reverse Ghost Flow = the opposite of Ghost Flow where you do get heat when you don't want it. LOL
RGF is when you don't get heat when you do want it.

retiredguy

Years ago, I ran into a job that had a similar problem where a non-union plumbing company and a union steam fitter company had an ongoing feud and the fitters came in early and put a bucket of ping pong balls into the supply piping for the domestic water for the building. Every time the building's water system was drained the ping pong balls moved somewhere else. What a mess. This happened just after the "right to work" laws were implemented in Pa. I just happened to be on that job to start up 2 H B Smith boilers the day they cut open the main supply line.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@retired guy.

I herd of something similar only it involved a 2 1/2" welded gas line and the ball was a tennis ball that apparently fit perfectly.

Sylvain

Do we have to search on the pneumatic side?

EdTheHeaterMan

Sylvain said:

Do we have to search on the pneumatic side?

You need to wait until Friday to find out! Ray has a "No Questions Policy" except when @retiredguy ask's them.

JUGHNE

Monoflow tees in the circuit.....WAG

RayWohlfarth

You guys are tough LOL I did let another clue go to @retiredguy I think you will get a kick out of what caused it

EBEBRATT-Ed

Maybe the Pneumatic valves were normally open which is usually the case and you have to use a reverse acting stat maybe they used direct acting stats on some rads. Air compressor tripping overload

RayWohlfarth

Happy Friday all. I wasnt involved with this case bit it was told to me by a person who said was. The intermittent no heat calls were caused by a ping pong ball inside the piping, courtesy of the disgruntled installer who was fired. On a call for heat, the ping pong ball would get stuck agains the open valve and the radiator had no neat. When the call for heat ended, the ping pong ball would travel to the next cold radiator and plug its supply pipe. I couldn't help but admire the deviousness of this idea. It would have driven me crazy. @ratio and @retiredguy had the closest answers. Remind me never to upset you two.
Have a great weekend everyone and here is the link, https://youtube.com/watch?v=USNWlcN7ctA

Sylvain

Aha!
According to your video, the ping-pong ball was not against the valve; otherwise I don't see why it would disengage from the valve.

RayWohlfarth

This was passed down to me and according to the tech there, he said it would get stuck at the supply pipe takeoff to the radiator. Plus it was about twenty years ago when I heard the story so my memory may be the same LOL

MarkMurf

And the simplest, clear moral to the story is,"Whatever you do, don't piss off THE HEATING MAN!" 🤪🤪🔥🔥