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Pulsing Air Vent & Water Hammer

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Trimmerj55
Trimmerj55 Member Posts: 2
in Strictly Steam

Hi all. I moved into my house 2 years ago. We have one pipe steam. Last winter we had to keep the house at low 60s to not spend a fortune, and to make it worse, the system was loud!

I started with getting the house better insulated and sealing up the house a bit. Now Im onto improving the steam and hopefully quieting it down. I started with reading We Got Steam Heat, so i have already hit a few of those recommendations. I checked the pitch of pipes and radiators, checked the vents are working, insulated my 2" mains, cleaned the pigtail and turned down the pressuretrol, and got the boiler drained and filled with clear water. Last thing im going to do is replace the main vents with Gortons. The noise is down to 10% as bad as it was. Looking for help for the last bit.

Its only 1 radiator and its on the second floor. The pitch seems fine (the bubble on a level is touching the line). The water hammer is brief, maybe 20 second, and more smaller bangs vs a couple really really loud bangs from before. The other unique thing about this radiator is the air venting pulses. Maybe 3 second waves of high airflow and low airflow. Its adjustable vent, so i have played around, but cant make that go away.

Any ideas before I try just replacing the vent? Thanks!

Mad Dog_2

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,679

    Somewhere between the main and the radiator there is a bit of horizontal pipe. Might be in the basement. Might be in the floor going over to the radiator. It isn't pitched adequately drain the condensate, and some is pooling in there. Hard to say what the cure is — need to figure out where the inadequately pitched pipe is. Sometimes just lifting both ends of the radiator an inch or so is all that is needed.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    bburdMad Dog_2
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,535

    Use a 2x4 as a levwe abd dwbrlt lift the whole raduator up and slip a wood strip under each set of legs. Try 3/4 " thick strips for both sets of feet. This might chengs the pitch just ebough to fain that pool of water.

    Bob

    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
    Mad Dog_2
  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 19,172

    I agree with the above posts. Water in a horizontal pipe is causing the banging. It is also causing the radiator valve to "Pant".

    You may or may not be able to raise the radiator 3/4" but get what you can. Check the supply in the basement first with a level.

    A crowbar a chunk of 2x 4 and some wood blocks and some shims will do the trick and make sure the radiator is pitched.

  • Trimmerj55
    Trimmerj55 Member Posts: 2

    Thanks for all the recommendations! I will give this a go and report back.

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