Venting one pipe steam system

MattV

I have a one pipe steam system. In Dans book he says to vent the larger rads quicker than the small ones not by where they are in your home. How do you know how fast to vent them? Do you vent them according to where they are in you house as well as the size of them? Hope this makes sense.

Al Letellier

venting

It mostly trial and error. It's a balancing act. You have to "tweek and twiddle" until you get it right. If the room overheats, close the vent down (slower venting), if the room is cool, open the vent more (faster venting). It doesn't get much more scientific than that.

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Steamhead

Just as important as radiator vents

are the vents at the ends of your steam mains. These have a profound effect on system performance. They must be large enough to vent all the air in the mains in about a minute, measured from the time the boiler starts making steam. Then all the radiator vents have to do is vent the radiators and the piping connecting the radiators to the mains.

Measure the length and diameter of your steam mains and tell us what vents are on them. We can tell you what you need.

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MattV

mains

I have 2 mains one measures about 34 1/2 qand the other about 37 1/2. I use ventrite 35 on both mains. You had told me a while ago to use 2 vents on each main. The problem is I can't find a plumber who wants to do the job. They keep telling me it is not neccesary. I suppose I will keep looking in the mean time what should I do?

Arnold

No plumber wants to be bothered with my little job

No disrespect to the true professionals who lurk on this site. Do you wonder why some of us flock to the big box stores and and join the DYI movement??

tom_54

this is what I have done...

with materials from the dumpo (home depot). Of course you will have to find a place to get the main vents.

bb

TRVs

Hello Matt:

You could also install 1 Pipe Steam Valves, Thermostatic Operator and a vent to each rad so that your room does not overheat.

Check the Library on this site under Thermotatic Radiator Vavles for more details. Althought the part numbers have changed, the product is still available.

Warm Regards,
bb

colm

pipe connection with teflon ?

I have been pondering how to add multiple main vents - (thanks to Steamhead for starting me looking at this). Q: what did you use to seal the pipes at the threads - I see the teflon ... is this sufficent to make it air tight on the connection of this size ?

Thad English

question for Steamhead

Do I need more than 2 Gorton #2s and a Hoffman #75 to vent 90' of 2.5" steam main at the proper rate?

Steamhead

That combination

should work fine. If there are any other steam mains on that system, make sure they are properly vented also.

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Thad English

one other lengthy question for Steamhead

Thanks for the info Steamhead.

I think that I am correct in my diagnosis below but want your opinion before I call the plumber in:

The steam system in question is a 2-pipe air vent system. According to "the Lost Art" the returns should be piped directly to the wet return in the basement. In my system the returns come down and connect with the drip leg from the steam riser at a point that is about 30" above the wet return and about 14" above the water line. There are also flow check valves on every return pipe that are installed to not allow anything to go 'up' the return pipe. The boiler was replaced about 4 years ago by some knucklehead and Jamie Pompetti redid all the near boiler piping for us last Feb. The issue that I am having is steam getting into the returns (causing a bit of hammer near the end of the cycle) and not necessarily getting all the way up to the rads on the second and third floors. My theory is that since the old boiler's water line was above where the returns connect to the drip leg, steam was never able to make it into the returns. Now that the water line is much lower, steam is free to get into the returns. I think that the fix is to lower that connection point to somewhere below the current water line. What is your opinion?


Another option just occured to me: will the flow checks stop air and/or steam or are they designed to work only with water? if they would work with air, maybe all I need to do is to replace the guts on them or clean them up? What do you think?

Thanks in advance,

Thad

MattV

Where to buy

Where can I buy those. I have had no luck looking for them.

Steamhead

See the other thread

for my answer.

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bb

where do you live?

that will help to refine the search.

bb

Bill_39

did you try

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