main vent comparison

btc

On a comparative basis, can anyone describe venting capacities of the Gorton #1, 2 and Hoffman #75 relative to each other as well as the typical residential appropriateness of each?

for example, a home with two opposite direction take offs, 2" mains, 20 ft each way--what might appropriate vent be? Thanks in advance.

Steamhead

Main vents are sized

according to the amount of air they must vent. We want to vent the mains in a minute, measured from the time the boiler starts producing steam.

Each of your mains has 0.46 cubic foot of air in it.

A Gorton #2 will vent just over 5 cubic feet of air per minute at 2 ounces pressure. This would be overkill on your system.

A Gorton #1 or Hoffman #75 will vent about 1.4 CFM at 2 ounces pressure. One of these vents at the end of each main will work fine.

Your e-mail address looks familiar, as does the description of your system- did I work on your system a while back?

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btc

Possibly. My neighbor just passed away and his wife gave me a box of vents--mains, rads, a whole pile of stuff. I found out at his eulogy that he was a boiler engineer for a large hotel in his early days--he died at 88 yrs old--and had never mentioned that in my years of knowing him.

Since I had all of these new "assets" mainly just wanted to understand the relative venting capacities. Neighbors have Hoffman 75s on their mains. New question--why is the Hoffman so large, heavy, etc compared to the Gorton 1--seems like it would cost more to produce....I have Gorton number 1's,which seem to work fine...:-) Thanks.

Bob W._2

Those Hoffmans are much more expensive..

Gorton No. 1's are $15-16 each. I think the 75's are up to 5 times that much.

Steamhead

If a guy came down from Baltimore

and drilled holes at the ends of the mains to install the vents, that was me. Glad to hear it's working well. I would have loved to meet your neighbor- I'll bet he's now talking shop with John Mills, C.A. Dunham, Reuben Trane, Stephen Gold, John Reed and a whole lot of other Dead Men!

The Hoffman #75 and Gorton #1 have the same capacity, but are made differently. The Hoffman uses an expanding float while the Gorton has a bimetal strip that raises the float to close the vent. Both work well if properly sized.

So did you get your hands on any other ancient steam goodies?



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btc

main vents

Mostly used vents (nothing too unique)and a couple of old valves. Turns out a couple of the wife's radiators wouldnt heat--someone had installed vacuum vents which had closed shut. When I switched those for some of the old Hoffman 40's from the box, whoosh-instant heat. I was glad to see her so happy....thanks for the install on the main vents--system working pretty well. Best thing I have discovered after implementing about all the suggested steam techniques, is to set the tstat at one temperature, then dont touch it. System seems to operate very smoothly under that principle. Also, how does Hoffman ever sell a 75 vent if the cost is so much greater than Gorton 1?

Steamhead

Gorton Vs. Hoffman

Hoffman has a far greater market penetration than Gorton does. This is a shame, since both companies make good equipment, and there's nothing like some healthy competition!

Gorton has Hoffman beat in the large-vent category. Hoffman has nothing that will compare with Gorton's #2, which was originally designed for Gorton's long-ago Vapor system. I just installed four Gorton #2 vents on two different Vapor systems- one Trane, one Hoffman- and they made a BIG difference.

But if Hoffman brought back their #10 vent, which was used with the original style Differential Loop in non-vacuum applications, they'd give Gorton a run for their money! Ya listening, Hoffman?

Regarding thermostats- some digital programmable models work well with steam, but not the ones you get at Home Cheapo. I like the Honeywell T8600 because it has a different program for each day of the week and doesn't need batteries. However, some systems don't like the "power-stealing" thermostats, so in that case the T8602 battery-powered unit is the one to get. But I think the T8600 will work fine with your boiler.


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