whistling rad vents at end of cycle

Jim_35

at end of steam cycle? This is something new this year. Ive got some gortons and some home depot cheapo adjustables and they both whistle from time to time.

Im not sure if its between on/off cycles or when tstat is satisfied

I know its the air rushing back in, but Im curious about the whistling since thats only started this year

Constantin

Maybe some scale?

I'd given Gorton a call. Everybody raves about their customer service, so why not put it to a test?

My guess is that yoou may have a scale issue with minute amounts of scale causing enough restriction to cause a resonance and hence the whistling. I don't know what materials the vents are made of, but I would think a cleaning in white vinegar (followed by a rinse in clean water) should safely remove all the scale inside them.

Just to be sure that this remedy is the right one, give Gorton a call. After all, I'm just a homeowner who used to live in scale country a.k.a. Cologne, Germany, where descaling all water fixtures was a monthly event.

Phillip Biston

Are your main vents Gortons? I am dealing with the same problem. I have 7 #2"s venting my system and I believe that they are staying too hot and not opening and the system is producing a vacuum and the radiator vents are sucking air, cooling off my radiators!
Ken at Gorton said that the # 2" start to close at around 100 degrees, and I can't keep the area around mine below that , so I may try a vacuum breaker for the system if I can find one.
Phillip

Fred Harwood

Vent vacuum

Yes, my experience with the Gortons shows that they stay closed if in a hot place. I've had some success with piping them a bit away from the main on bare black pipe, schedule 20 to reduce retained heat mass, and carefully maintaining pitch so that condensate doesn't fill the extension.

The Hoffman 75 seems more resistant to the heat problem, but the Gortons breath better, when they can cool between cycles.

jim_14

Yes I have 1 gorton #2 main vent

and thats it... I was thinking some sort of vacuum problem... Its not too big of a deal.. Just noticable the amount of times and the length of the whistling

Steamhead

Jim, are your steam pipes insulated?

If not, steam will condense in the mains very fast when the boiler shuts down, causing a vacuum which will make the radiator vents whistle.

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