Extremely High Humidity With One Pipe Radiators

EpsilonRose

Hi,

I'm living in an apartment that uses steam heating with one pipe radiators. I've never had steam heating before, so I don't really know what to expect from it. With that said, dealing with it in this apartment has been a bit of a saga; the whole system has gone down more than once this winter.

Speaking of, it went down last weekend (Jan 9th) and it was apparently fixed the following Monday (the 12th). I still wasn't getting heat and when a maintenance guy came they ended up replacing all of the air vents (? Steam Bulbs? See bellow.) That fixed the heat issue, but afterwards, the radiators began hissing and spitting much louder than they were before and for much longer. More importantly, this caused as significant increase in humidity in my apartment, to the point where it when up to and above 80% humidity multiple times and the only way to deal with that is keeping my windows open, which can cause things to get too cold between cycles.

Today, the maintenance guy came back and basically said there was nothing he could do, because the system is supposed to work by cycling steam into the apartment to heat it, so this is normal behavior. If I want to do something about it, apparently I need to complain to the front office and hope they, maybe, send a specialist.

That doesn't seem correct to me, primarily because 80% humidity is insane, but maybe I'm wrong. Could you help me understand what is reasonable to expect from this system. If it's not this, what might be going wrong and how could I explain this to maintenance and/or the front desk?

If it helps, here are some pictures of the parts that were replaced and one of the radiators:

These are the things that got replaced. I'm pretty sure most of the radiators in my apartment have the conical versions, while only the largest has the cylindrical one.

And here's a picture of that long radiator.

I'd appreciate any help or insight on this issue and if there's any additional information I could add that would make it easier to figure out, please let me know and I'll do my best to provide it.

Thank you.

Waher

The air vents they installed may be defective and leaking steam resulting in your high humidity problem. Try holding a mirror over the air vents when when is actively running and see if it fogs. Keep your hand away from the vents because if they are leaking that steam may burn you like a tea kettle would.

EpsilonRose

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1883025#Comment_1883025

I don't have a hand mirror, so I just used a spoon and it didn't so much fog up as become visibly wet.

mattmia2

either way the vent is leaking a lot. could be new vents that are bad or excessive pressure settings at the boiler.

EpsilonRose

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1883033#Comment_1883033

Makes sense. Is there any thing I could show them to convince maintenance/management that it's not supposed to work this way and get them on the right track to figuring out what's wrong? I have the feeling that they don't have the best grasp on how to properly maintain the system.

patrykrebisz

Vents, even straight out of the box, often malfunction. Their manufacturing tolerances are low.
High humidity = a vent (or a bunch of vents) that doesn't close when steam reaches it.

The steam heats the radiators (inside) and those radiators heat the space. There should be no steam in your space.

For what it's wort, i've made a series of videos about steam vents (and their high failure rate) on my youtube channel. (in my signature).

EpsilonRose

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1883041#Comment_1883041

I'll give them a look. Is there anything you can do to fix the vents if they're the issue, or are you stuck replacing them until you get a set that work?

patrykrebisz

stuck replacing them until they work.

EBEBRATT-Ed

My bet is they are running the boiler pressure higher than the air vent rating and they don't have a clue. They just probably replace the boiler every 5 years from excessive make up water.

jesmed1

Would the pros here recommend that the OP ask for adjustable vents? Then if the boiler is in fact running at too high a pressure as Ed suggests, at least the OP can reduce the rate of "forced humidication" by dialing down the vent orifice size. Obviously that's also going to affect how much heat each radiator gets, but at least that gives the OP some control over a system that isn't being properly regulated in the boiler room.

Jamie Hall

"Today, the maintenance guy came back and basically said there was nothing he could do, because the system is supposed to work by cycling steam into the apartment to heat it, so this is normal behavior."

You know, about the time I think I've heard it all… I haven't.

And no, that's not how steam heat works. Your maintenance guy clearly hasn't a clue.

You might be able to control the situation with better quality vents — but be very careful about replacing them. First place, you really aren't supposed to work on that sort of thing in a rental More important, perhaps, is that you mustn't take a vent off when there is steam present — only when the system is not making steam.

dabrakeman

Clarify for the front desk or maintenance guy that the air vents on the radiators are supposed to let air out only until the point that steam reaches the vent at which time the vent is supposed to close. No steam should ever enter the room from a steam heating system. If it is, the vent is not working.

If they want to understand why the vents may not be working have them come to this site and maybe we can figure it out together. Not sure where you live but maybe you could convince them to bring in a steam expert, one from the listings on this site.

ChrisJ

@EpsilonRose Just to help the others and drive their point home, my house has 10 steam radiators with vents.

I currently have 21% humidity and dropping, might get as low as 10% tonight. Steam systems do not add humidity to rooms, like many think unless something is wrong. In your case something is very wrong.

The vents are either bad, or are being damaged by excessive pressure.

pecmsg

ask permission before touching the vents!

EpsilonRose

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1883178#Comment_1883178

I'm not planning to touch them myself. They've also made it pretty clear that they have no interest in actually fixing the problem, so I'm planing to just get out of here as soon as possible.

AdmiralYoda

How many units are in this apartment building? And do you have access to where the boiler lives? Might be worth it to take a few pictures of the boiler and piping if you can for us.