Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
If our community has helped you, please consider making a contribution to support this website. Thanks!

Top Floor Radiator Not Getting Hot

Options
MikeC_3
MikeC_3 Member Posts: 77
edited March 18 in Strictly Steam

Hopefully the end of the saga……

If you were following along - I changed the main vents, all the radiator vents, two valves and altered the pitch on a hissing baseboard radiator.

Weekly usage is below 60 Therms from over 200, the house temperature is relatively equal on all floors and all the radiators are relatively quiet.

The last issue is that a top floor radiator furthest from the boiler is not getting hot. The feeder pipe prior to the valve also is not getting hot. The riser nearest to it is getting hot on all floors below - 190 degrees measured on the infrared thermometer on my phone.

When I first noticed the issue, I investigated and found that the valve was in the off position. No telling for how long - possibly for over 20 years. The top floor (rarely occupied) is comfortable without it. Turning the valve completely on did not solve the issue.

My instinct is to leave well enough alone, but since I have come this far, I figured I would post to see if it could be easily resolved.

Not sure how the riser terminates as it is directly below the radiator, but the feeder pipe is about four feet beyond which would make it in a wall on the floor below.

I'm attaching a few photos and a crude drawing of the piping.

PXL_20260313_164143109.jpg PXL_20260313_164146456.jpg PXL_20260313_164042726.jpg PXL_20260318_141218219.jpg PXL_20260318_143514207.jpg PXL_20260318_145001821.jpg PXL_20260318_223245738.jpg

Comments

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,658

    does the lateral in what looks like a knee wall have pitch toward the riser? The valve could have come apart such that the washer is still sitting on top of the seat when you open it.

  • MikeC_3
    MikeC_3 Member Posts: 77

    Honestly, not sure. But wouldn't the pipe prior to the valve still get hot?

    I can not see where the riser would be feeding the radiator.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 16,658

    if the valve isn't opening because it is broken the air would not be able to get out of the riser through the radiator vent so the riser would not be able to get steam in it so it wouldn't heat.

    Is this on the other side of the wall from the radiator? Does any of this get hot?

    image.png
  • 4GenPlumber
    4GenPlumber Member Posts: 146

    When everything else is hot in the home, take the vent off. See if you hear it blowing air. If the other rads are hot, and the therm is calling, steam will head there. If the valve is stuck in the closed position it wont. (Make sure the vent is easily removed and easily reinstalled when there is no pressure and boiler not firing prior to trying this. If steam starts rushing out and you can't get the vent back in, and we dont know if the valve works, you will be running down lots of stairs to turn off the boiler and drain down some water to kill pressure.) THIS IS NOT A SAFE SUGGESTION (I do this regularly though).

    MikeC_3
  • MikeC_3
    MikeC_3 Member Posts: 77
    edited 2:12PM
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1892138#Comment_1892138

    Yes, on the other side of the radiator through the wall of an odd unfinished storage room. That vertical pipe must be in the wall below. I assume that the riser must be to the right of that sub-floor chase so it can not be seem.

    It does not get hot. It gets ever so slightly warm because it is connected to the system.

  • MikeC_3
    MikeC_3 Member Posts: 77
    edited 4:10PM
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1892147#Comment_1892147

    I took a second look and no, the horizontal pipe is pretty level. The thing that confuses me is that the riser is directly below the radiator but instead it is piped through a wall and ceiling below a few feet away. Should the valve be pitched back towards where the pipe extends through the ceiling below and then the radiator be pitched higher from vent to valve?

    Edit: Reexamining my pictures I see that it is pitched in this fashion. It also looks like the floor was either damaged or repaired exactly where the riser would be.

Categories