Airplane take off!
what is the problem when i turn the heat up —few degrees (usually first think in the morning) and some radiators sound like are taking off —spitting water out of vent. again..usually when i turn the heat up after lowering it during the night. thanks
i have a 1 pipe system
Comments
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Need pictures of the near boiler piping from a distance.
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Take a picture of the pressuretrol (pressure control box on the front of the boiler) When is the last time the pigtail (siphon loop, usually steel or brass under the pressuretrol) was cleaned?
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see photo
s…..i have since insulated the pipes …….
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Pressuretrol seems set correctly assuming the dial inside is at the lowest setting of 1. Definitiely as mentioned clean that pigtail if you haven't already. If it is dirty or blocked the pressuretrol will not sense the true pressure in the boiler allowing pressure to rise higher than settings.
Did this problem just develop recently? What do you have for a main vent and is it working?
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in the 1st picture what the steel pipe on the right that’s capped off? Can you get a pic of that side?
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kind of been an ongoing problem….main vent is hoffman 75 …..never changed it…how do you know if that is the problem or needs to be replaced?
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here is vent
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here are photos of that pipe capped off….
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Go in the basement and watch a cycle. When steam reaches the header and starts travelling down the main (you can feel it through the pipes, won't be able to keep your finger on it) you should be able to tell if the main vent is releasing air. You can listen, feel or use a visual such as match/candle smoke or hanging a thin strip of paper towel above the vent. If you just can't tell then take the vent off and while holding it upright blow through the bottom. Should be able to blow air through it.
Have long is your main and what size pipe?
Have you checked the boiler size vs your connected radiator EDR?
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Why and how much do you turn the thermostat down each night? Steam radiant heat works best by maintaining a consistent setpoint.
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Not practical for many.
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example….i may put down to 68 at night….then first thing in morning….i will put to 70 or even 71 (old 3 story 100 year old house! — no insulation in walls!).
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Is your stat programmable? Can you start your recovery earlier and break it up into some 30min on off steps? House will keep heating during the off steps.
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old thermostat….programable real basic….need to switch over!…
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Doesn't anyone see a problem with this piping?
I think maybe 1-1/2". copper risers going to 2" mains might be a reason for getting wet steam into the mains, but maybe it's just me!
I can only guess at the pipe sizes from the picture but I believe this is what is going on under that insulation.
The installer followed the manufacturer's piping arrangement perfectly, but the manufacturer does not tell you how to connect to the rest of the system. You need some common sense for that. 1'1/2" copper is not the right choice in my opinion. I thins at least 2" for good measure, and I might choose iron/steel pipe and fittings over copper. But that's just me.
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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Supplies shouldn't be smaller than the mains they're feeding. 😬
Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.0 -
another photo…..so the problem is the copper going into the steel at the top?
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Give them a break he only had 1 1/2" on the truck😊
How is the boiler water level when the boiler is steaming? Does it stay rock steady? Move up and down gently total movement under an inch? Or bounce up and down violently?
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OK I take it back, It looks like that copper is 2" and that is the full size of the connected mains. It just looks much smaller in the first photo.
NEVERMIND
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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will look next time…..
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What vents do you have on the radiators?
—
Bburd0 -
hoffman vents….
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just following up…see photos of what the water looked like… temp was 70…i raised to 71 (no noise in vents/etc)…then raised to 72 after it hit 71…some radiators hissing /etc.
besides blowing thru the vent…which all mine seem fine…could you still do that and the vent be bad? what type of vent should i use…jsut the basic Hoffman?
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2.5psi is enough pressure to create some havoc particularly if you are doing it every morning.
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so what should or i need to do?
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Did you ever verify your main vent was functioning?
Anyway, what you need to do is avoid letting your system get up to 2.5psi. How to do that:
- First make sure you know what the pressure really is. Clean the pigtail out and I highly advise getting a low pressure gage (0-3psi or 0-5psi).
- If your presuretrol dial (the white one under the gray cover that you can lift off) is set on 1 and you have the scale set to 0.5 then if you are really getting to 2.5psi or higher then the calibration of the pressuretrol may be off. They are notoriously bad. There are some things that can be done to try to dial them down further but not worth doing until you have a low pressure gage that can be trusted in the <2psi range.
- Make sure your main vent is working as I described above. If it isn't then all your venting is forced through the radiators. When you said you were able to blow through your vent I'm not sure if you were talking about the main vent or the radiator vents.
- More than likely none of the above is your real problem and you may just have an oversized boiler (haven't seen anything here about your sizing, boiler or total radiator edr) and trying to do recoveries. Either stop doing the setbacks or as I described before get a thermostat that will allow you to break up that recovery into a few on off steps.
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thanks! How do I know if main vent is bad? Probably about 5-8 years old.
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Either not venting at all, or chronically open. You probably have the former issue.
Trying to squeeze the best out of a Weil-McLain JB-5 running a 1912 1 pipe system.0 -
thanks….i dont see or hear anything from the main vent when boiler is on……..what would i hear or see if main vent was working properly?….what is the difference between the gauge i have vs your recommended low pressure gauge? thanks
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Code requires the 30psi gage but the range you want to be working in is the lower portion of zero to two psi. The 30psi gages just are not accurate enough to tell you you have i.e. 0.5psi or 1.0psi. Generally they will just sit at zero at those pressures. Even a cheapo low pressure gage will guide you a lot better at those pressures than the 30psi gage. It won't cost you much and the plumbing is fairly simple (DIY). Many examples on this forum. We can send you some photo examples if you would like. Still need to retain the 30psi gage with the new low pressure gage.
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thanks!..can you send me or point me how to install and where….does it take the place of the 30psi gauge? thanks again!
Alan
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i will replace the old hoffman 75 main and install the low pressure gauge to see how that works…now that it is not that cold…not having the problems ……what is better..Gorton #2 or the HOffman 75 for my main vent?
thanks Alan
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30psi gage has to stay on my code. Should have the low pressure gage and the pressuretrol protected from steam by the pigtail and the low pressure gage preferably also protected with a shutoff valve (in case you are doing something that might cause excessive pressure off it's safe scale). Keep the pressuretrol level. Here are a couple examples. The first one I included because it seemed to have the existing gage coming straight out of the boiler like yours. 2nd one is from my boiler. You might just have to puzzle something out for your own specific setup. Note the union in my setup makes it real easy to separate the pigtail from the rest of the gages and pressuretrol so pigtail removal and cleaning is easy.
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