Vent tongues?

Tom K_2

I saw in "We've got steam heat" that it mentioned the tongue on the radiator vent as being important. However, replacement vents I find in the stores don't have tongues attached to them. Are they outdated and no longer necessary? I replaced on vent, and the tongue from the old one didn't fit the new vent, so I left it off.

Fred Harwood

tongue

The vent tongue is intended to help moisture that may collect in the vent get back into the radiator and so reduce spitting of the vent and loss of boiler water. Good vents often still have them. The need for them is reduced by adequate mains venting, which reduces air movement through radiator vents, and low steam pressures (less than 8 ounces per inch), which also reduces opportunity for condensate to back up in the vents.

Tom K_2

Thanks Fred,

Replacement tongues aren't something I see on the shelf though. Any idea where such a tiny scrap of formed metal can be purchased?

Fred Harwood

Tongues

Are your vents spitting? If not, worry not.

VentRites used to come with the tongues.

Tom K_2

Luckily no! We got past that when we drew down the water once a week to get the crud out of the bottom of the boiler. Now we've just got a lot of hissing we're trying to mitigate best we can.

Thanks for the assist!

Fred Harwood

Hissing

If your vents hiss long, then you may need more mains venting. Also, if you're overfired for the load, you'll send steam too fast. Also, you may have too much pressure. Shouldn't be more than a half PSI, and you'll need a Vaporstat to control that.

Make sure that all your rad valves are open and the rads venting, as well. Don't "throttle" the system.