Air vent brands

michael_15

I noticed that there seems to be a heavy preference for "Gorton" brand air vents. Is this generally accepted as the best brand, or just a favorite of people on this forum?

In every radiator in our house (as well as my friends' homes), the air vent of choice says "Ventrite" on the side. Heck, even my main vent says "Ventrite." Is that an obsolete brand? Cheapest one on the market? What about Hoffman-branded vents?

What makes an air vent "good" or "bad"? As far as I can tell, all of my air vents (which seem to work fine) have lasted for many years. . . are there features other than longevity to be concerned about?

-Michael

Joe_48

One thing I think, I think...

From my very amateur new home owner, wall watcher experience, it seems as if the Ventrite brand is a cheaper version. I replaced the vents on my rads with the Ventrite but have Gordons on my mains. I figure that the mains will be tougher on the vents rather than the rads and so far so good with the cheaper Ventrites. Take my opinion for what it's worth.

Joe Mattiello

Attached is a submittal data sheet for the Taco Hy-vents.

Taco, Inc.
Joe Mattiello
Technical Service Technician
joemat@taco-hvac.com
401-942-8000 X 484
www.taco-hvac.com

chuck_6

Michael:

Go with the Gorton vents as I think they are the best. They have a website that describes each vent. You can call Ken Kunz at Gorton at (908) 276-1323. He can give you more detail and where you can purchase them. I would highly recommend using them on the main vents and individual radiators. The few extra dollars it may cost, it is well worth the investment over some cheaper brands.

I'm just a homeowner, but I have great success with the Gortons.

Chuck

Steamhead

A Good vent is a good vent

I use a lot of Gortons, mainly their monster #2 main vent since it's the biggest one out there. But Dole, Hoffman and Vent-Rite are OK too. The biggest mistake I see which shortens the life of a vent is not sizing it properly. This is especially true of main vents- if these are too small they will increase the strain on the radiator vents.

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John Shea

Since we're talking vents.

Steamhead, you've made a believer out of me.

Same venting rate:

Hoffman #75 - $75.00 (approx.)
Gorton #1 - $25.00 (approx.)

I'd try 3 Gortons before 1 Hoffman all day long. Just wish I knew about them 10 years ago. I'd be rich!

Enough said.

gerry gill

my two cents worth-

first most any air vent can be a good product and a good vent..selection and application means more..quality wise the insides of a hoffman 75 is a highly engineered product..you pay for this..the gorton operates on a different principle..probably costs a heck of a lot less to make..does it make it cheaper, you bet..is the quality OF FUNCTION different..not really, both vent air, both shut when steam hits it..BUT the hoffman can be placed in a high ambiant temperature location and still remain open..the gorton main vents will start to close about 130 degrees..sounds like a high temp, but its easily reached in the ceiling corner of a hot boiler room..there again selection takes place..in that enviorment the hoffman would reign supreme..move the venting location to a cooler area and the gorton #2 will kick all comers butts when it comes to venting..see, its selection and application...you'll probably use alot of both, depending on where and when..by the way the currently used charts for venting capacities are way off...WAY OFF..i'm currently testing various air vents on a test station and at 2 ounces the readings are way different..dont know where those readings came from on the chart but for example, at 2 ounces an open 1/2'' pipe can vent only 3.4 cubic feet..when I complete the chart it will be made available..

jesse the great

gerry gill

who's chart are you comparing too??
and when your chart is complete hook me up

Steamhead

Sources

The first published CFM for air vents that I saw was in Frank Gerety's book "How to get the Best from One-Pipe Steam". In it, Mr. Gerety by whatever means he had, established the capacity of the Gorton #1 vent as 1.4 CFM at 2 ounces (1/8 PSI). Most of the rest of the numbers in the chart you find in the Dead Men's Steam School workbook were calculated backwards or forwards from that. But I didn't have the equipment you have, so some of them were more representative than exact. This was the best we could do at the time, and was better than the rare previous efforts.

I'd be interested to see what you come up with. I'd love to see how they do at different pressures (1 ounce, 2 ounces, 4 ounces, etc) and which brands have better quality control than others. We're starting to see more vent makers listing their orifice sizes now, so it would also be interesting to see if vents with the same orifice size also have the same capacity.

Keep up the good work.

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gerry gill

well, on our test

using dwyer flowmeters we came up with .375 at one ounce, .58 at 2 ounces, .78 at 3 ounces for a gorton #1...the gauge we are using is a magnehelic..its still a work in progress..we are also checking radiator traps as they are air vents themselves till the steam/water gets there...so far the winner there is a barnes & jones #122.

Steamhead

Interesting!

Do you suppose the pressure was simply underestimated for the 1.4 CFM rating?

More!

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gerry gill

thats what we think.

steve and myself both feel that the ratings of the other charts may indeed be correct but that the pressure may be mistaken or a typographical error..cause every single thing we test comes up less...we were wondering if the 2 ounces was supposed to be 2 pounds? weve only been testing 1 thru 3 ounces...cause its been getting quite expensive doing this test, thus far close to a grand invested...it all started cause of a vent problem/question...funny how we keep going off on tangents..god bless our wives for putting up with our nonsense.

gerry gill

bumped for steve

Steamhead

I looked it up

in Frank Gerety's book. He states:

"The Gorton #1 vent is rated at about 4 CFM at 1 PSI. Since the typical steam heating system vents at only about 1/8 PSI, the Gorton #1 vent has a venting capacity of about 1.4 CFM at 1/8 PSI". But he doesn't say how he arrived at that figure.

I'll second the blessing of our wives.

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gerry gill

how do you figure that?

the math doesn't work that way in real life..i can't explain it but for example the mouat triple tube vent, vents at the rate of 1.16 cfm at 1 ounce..1.8 cfm at 2 ounces..2 cfm at 3 ounces...see what i mean..i cant explain it but doubling the pressure from 1 to 2 ounces doesn't translate into doubling the cfm's..like i say, its still a work in progress...i asked an old time steam guru here abouts why my readings are so ''off'' from the charts, he said cause i was the first person nuts enough to actually test it..