Whistling steam vents

Travis G.

Dale is right. Change the vent with an adjustable vent. The vent might have some dirt in it. Also maybe you should find a plumber in your area that knows steam heat and skim clean you steam boiler for you. You can also try this web sight in "find a contractor". Good luck

Mary Z.

Whistling steam vents

Is there anything I can do myself about this following problem or do I need to contact a contractor? The steam vent in my bedroom radiator starts whistling at about 2 in the morning and wakes me up. Can I turn the vent in some way? Turn off the radiator completely so I can get some sleep? It's the only radiator in the house that does this. It's my second year in the house and it makes me not want to spend another winter not getting enough sleep. When I asked my plumber he did not know what to do. He said, "don't touch the valve!" But I find that moving the valve adjusts the heat coming out of the radiator. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mary

Fred Harwood

whistling

You probably should have a local heat person install main vents on your system. They usually let the air out of your pipes in your basement when your boiler starts, and not in your bedroom. Also, check (or have checked) any existing main vents to ensure that they are working. Do not close the radiator valve.

Dale

If all else is fine

All the other radiators that is, I would just go buy a new radiator vent, an adjustable one like a dole for about 10 bucks and try that. You can turn it to "slow" and that may not be noisy. Sure you probably could use more main vents, the idea being that the rad vent should only need to vent the small amount of air from the main to include that individual rad. and yes do not mess with the inlet valve, it must be full open and stay that way, do any adjusting at the vent.