Spitting water on one pipe steam

Heather122 · January 5

Why is the radiator spitting out water? This heater is the farthest from the boiler. It is in the front of the house on the second floor in a two family house. The boiler is in the basement in the back of the house. It does this when the heat kicks on in the morning mainly.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/072SbME5rliZgvGZJ-CQOHVWA

Grallert · January 5

There's condensate (water) somewhere it shouldn't be. Where that is and why is the mystery. Do you have access to the radiator and the boiler room? Can you share pictures of the offending radiator and the boiler?

Heather122 · January 5

the link has the video of the heater spitting out water this morning. I have access I am the homeowner.
here is a picture

BobC · January 5

That vent looks like it came from a big box store, they are junk, That may be venting to fast - the adjustment really does nothing on those. Maybe they have Maid o Mist, Gorton, hoffman #1 or a Vent rite #1 (NOT the heat timer!). a small hardware store might have better ones. - these cost more but they do work . i see you have the end propped up, you might have to prop the other end up some to correct for the slope under the floor - just make sure you have slope down to the input pipe.

What kind of vents do the other radiators have on them? if they are all the same as the one on this rad they are probably to fast. You will have to select the vent size empirically - for MOM and Gorton your choices are 4,5,6,c and d (4 slowest d fastest vent rate

In general you want steam dads vented slowly (especially baseboards) and steam mains fast.

Bob

Grallert · January 5

Sorry I didn't check that. I see the radiator is pitched. that's good but can sometime cause the piping below to gain an incorrect pitch. Is this a newly installed radiator? How long has this been an issue?

I just watched the video. That's terrible!! I'm guessing that is a new radiator?

pecmsg · January 5

raise the right side as well

Use washers for slow increments

4 on the left

2 on the right

Heather122 · January 5

it’s been there for many years. The issue has been on going for more than 5 years

KC_Jones · January 5

You've got water where it doesn't belong. You need to check all horizontal pipe from the main all the way to that radiator. I suspect there is a sag, or improper pitch somewhere. Compounding it is those base boards will be very touchy on steam due to the very small passages inside. Almost certainly was a normal radiator originally, but I don't think that is your primary issue.

Heather122 · January 5

the vents on the other heaters

Grallert · January 5

Can you show us what the piping and the boiler looks like? You could start with @pecmsg's suggestion. But the issue isn't with the vents.

Heather122 · January 5

here are pictures of the main vent and the boiler

Grallert · January 5

How about from a few paces back getting the whole boiler and near boiler piping in the shot. It's hard to tell what's supply and what's return.

neilc · January 5

and a distant picture of the pipe going up to that noisey base rad so we could see a belly or dropped, lowered riser to the rad,

Heather122 · January 5

let me know if these are good.

@neilc the pipes are under the floor or in the ceiling so I can’t really take pictures

Heather122 · January 5

neilc · January 5

wow that boiler is every which way but right,

do you have your owner's install manual for thhe proper piping diagram?

Heather122 · January 5

oh man! That was my fear. Although it had been working fine for many years. I don’t have any paperwork on the boiler.
Any recommendations on an expert that can do a whole look over and fix on the system

neilc · January 5

all right, let's back up, it worked well before?

the base rad looks newer, is that when trouble started?

back at the boiler, cuz I can't see how anyone would get thru that junglegym, when was the pigtail under the Ptrol serviced last? it could be blocked up and the boiler overpressurising, which could also cause issues like your having,

top of the page there's a find a contractor, or where are you and someone here may know someone local,

Heather122 · January 5

technically yes once the baseboard went in we had issues.
we usually service the pigtail yearly. We actually just did it and the heat is on right now. The water was very overfilled. The auto filler must’ve overfilled it so we emptied some of the water out that might be the reason that it was squirting water this morning.

Heather122 · January 5

I’m in Astoria queens

neilc · January 6

is the valve all the way open going into the rad? it needs to be.

and what everyone else said,

get a dead slow vent on there instead of the homedepot vent

raise it all up, as much as possible, valve end also, something is holding water there, and it could be the fast venting

Heather122 · January 6

would you be able to send me a link to a store where I can buy the correct vent?

KC_Jones · January 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1880990#Comment_1880990

"Technically yes once the baseboard went in we had issues"

Has it occurred to you that the baseboard itself is the problem? Baseboard doesn't typically play well with one pipe steam and most that do it (and want to ensure it will work) will pipe it as 2 pipe to give some assurance the water can drain back effectively. I'd speculate the water is getting held up due to the small passages inside the baseboard, it could be getting compounded by a piping issue somewhere under the floor. As stated prior, you need to track every pipe from the main all the way to that radiators and make sure the pipes are all pitched properly and aren't sagging. If you do that and still have issues I'd put back whatever radiator was there previously or pipe the baseboard as 2 pipe so it can drain properly. It's quite possible getting it to work in its current configuration isn't possible. Did you hire a contractor to do this work, if so, what are they saying?

The vent is 100% not going to solve the problem here, you need to be very clear on that point. Those vents are cheap and I would recommend something better, but don't think that will fix the problem you are currently experiencing. Any vent, no matter what quality, will open in the presence of water due to the drop in temperature. The vent works with heat, when it "sees" steam it closes, add water in, drop the temp, it opens as it is designed to do. The water needs to be kept away, which means pitch and plenty of space for water to pass under the steam.

patrykrebisz · January 6

As per manual, baseboards are NOT designed to be used on 1 pipe system. They need inlet and outlet.
Of 9 radiators in my house, 3 are baseboards. One installed correctly and 2 that are not (1 pipe like yours). Despite being installed incorrectly they work.

You problem is coming from:
— bad pitch in the pipes OR
— pipes not insulated and near cold source thus water condensing in the pipe before even entering the radiator OR
— pressure in the boiler too high
(or combination of the above).

Here is a video i've made on importance of insulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3bDCUrUVzw&t

Spitting water on one pipe steam

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