Venting - round 3 - Whistle after you work

DanF

This will be my 3rd winter in my house.
Center Hall Colonial circa 1940's
3BR 1 bath - top floor, LR, DR Kitchen, 1/2 bth - Ground floor
Basement 1/2 finished
house about 30ft by 25ft footprint
1 pipe steam, gas

Brief history -

YR 1 -
house was definately haunted. Clanging and banging,
whistling, moaning. Woke me up at night.
I researched, found DanH.
Step 1 - turned pressure down !!!
Thanks DanH for exorcism.
Step 2 - bought Lost Art #1
Great book ! I said, I can do this !!

YR 2 -
Bought Lost Art #2, pocket Steam problems.
Getting very excited.
Attending 1 day DanH seminar - He signed my book :-)
Wife questioning my sanity.
Issue left is venting. Needed more info on
calculating and rads.
Bought video - now i'm ready.
measured mains, counted rad columns
even had help from Stemhead on EDR multpliers for my rads - Thanks !!
Bought all new vents- 2 Gorton #1's for mains, 7 Gorton 5's, and 2 Hoff 40's
made sure water was clean, even insulated some of main that was exposed.
Everything seems to be in check. All is quiet, seems to heat evenly.

YR 3 - haven't turned on yet.
I am 99% satified with last winter, I think I did it right.
Here is the but....
When it gets cold out and heat is on more frequently,
only when system cools down,
the vents whistle when taking in air, even at mains.
I know it should be totally quiet. I'm not sure if I should bother.
Should I just get bigger vents at main? Or should I be content?
Maybe I should check my math.....???

I dunno... what do you think.....

Steamhead

Finish Insulating the Steam Pipes

The whistling you hear is caused by condensing steam forming a slight vacuum, which pulls air into the system. You can reduce the noise by insulating the steam pipes, thereby keeping steam from condensing so quickly inside them. I like the pre-formed fiberglass insulation with a wall thickness of 1 inch.

And the system will heat faster when it's insulated- you'll reduce your gas consumption too.

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John@Reliable

Steamhead,what about using a manifold?

of 3 or 4 main vents. I do this alot on old & big systems when doing boiler replacements to avoid callbacks due to noise.Seems the newer boilers make steam so fast that new noise always would appear.Since doing this no more callbacks!

Steamhead

That would have been my next suggestion

but insulating the pipes will slow the rate of steam condensing and also save him some fuel. It's the next logical step. If I remember correctly, the mains in that house are rather short so they don't need monster vents (or multiple vents on manifolds) to get the air out in a minute's time.

Hey Dan- let us know how you do!

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DanF

Some of the main behind wall

Some of the main is behind the walls on finished side of basement, along the ceiling of the basement but behind the sheetrock.
I actually had to make an access panel to get to 1 of the main vents. I'll have to get creative again !! There's about a foot between the sheetrock and the basement wall to squeeze behind. (to hide pipes and match up to ceiling beams, i guess)

Thanks for all your input !! I'll let you know what happens.

DanF

DanF

I'm not opening that can of worms

Well I got behind some of the sheetrock to see if the mains were insulated......

Well, yes they are......
but with asbestos...... :-(

I'm not touchin it, I closed up the hole
and I guess I will step back slowly..

Actually I think plan B would be to change the
Gorton #1's at end of main to Gorton #2's.
Does that make sense ??

Thanks
DanF

Steamhead

Good Move

leave the white stuff where it is and close the hole. At least those hidden mains have insulation.

You'll want to insulate any exposed steam pipes you can get to first- this includes the near-boiler piping. If the whistling still annoys you, try to find which vents are making the noise.

I'll bet the Gorton #1s aren't the whistlers. When the boiler shuts down there is still steam in the mains, which holds the G-1 vents closed until things cool down enough so they can open. The radiator vents, however, may still be open when the boiler shuts down (especially in mild weather) so they would be more prone to whistling.

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