Cold radiators, what to try next?

Tareq Hasan

I own an apartment building with steam heat. I had lot of problems. Water Hammer was one of them. There couldbe lot of reason.
Try this book written by Dan Holohan :
"A pocketful of Steam Problems (With Solutions!)"
It is an excellent troubleshooting book.

You also shoud use Gorton #2 because when I talk to gorton tech support they told me for every 20 feet of main you need one Gorton #1 and Every 60 to 80 Feet of main you need one Gorton #2 vent and it's ok to over vent.

Janet_3

Cold radiators, what to try next?

I have a one pipe steam heating system in a 3 story apartment building. There are two apartments on each floor. The 3rd floor apartment radiators all work fine, including the ones in the bedrooms farthest from the boiler. But the bedroom radiators on the 1st and 2nd floor never get hot. We've got Gorton C's on the 2nd and 3rd floor radiators. The 1st floor apartments have a #4 which I am about to change. There are two 60ft mains, for the left and right side apartments. At the end of each long main is one Gorton #1. All of these are new valves.

I'm trying to figure out what to do next to get the 1st and 2nd floor radiators hot like the 3rd floor radiators. I asked my plumber if changing to a Gorton #2 on the long main would help the problem, but he didn't think so. I also insulated the pipes in my basement with 1/2" fiberglass. Later I read that I should have used 1". Should I go back and re-do the insulation? Is it worth trying to change to a Gorton #2 on the long main? Should I "up" the valves on the far radiators, meaning use D's instead of C's? The one improvement I've noticed since I installed the 1/2" insulation is that the risers get much hotter, but still the heat doesn't enter the radiators on the 1st and 2nd floors, only the 3rd.

I should add that my short main has a Maid O Mist self-adujsting valve (if I read it correctly). Are they okay to use?

Any and all advice will be highly appreciated.

Bob W._3

What is the diameter of the mains? Suspect you need more venting.

Janet_3

mains are 2\"

Thanks for responding to my post. The mains are 2 inches.

Adam_12

Did they work fine last year?.Have you done any work to the system in the past year ?.That maid of mist is it approved for use on steam?. The answer to your problem is something simple that you can find by going back over previous work.

Janet_3

not sure :-(

The problem is that my dad who is not alive anymore used to take care of the whole system, and had all the information about the system, so unfortunately I can't really answer the question of what was changed. When my dad passed away unexpectedly, we were in a panic to make sure that all his hard work was preserved, which included taking care of a building he owned. So, when the boiler developed a big leak, we rushed to replace it without realizing that we needed to learn more information first. The guy who installed it was not so great, and we stopped using him. We now have a Weil-McLain 75 for a building with 6 apartments. Since we've had the new machine, we've had water hammer (again, not sure if the problem was there before). And the far radiators on the 1st and 2nd floor have been cold, while the 3rd floor is warm (again, I'm not sure if the problem existed before the new machine, but somehow I don't think so, my dad would have probably mentioned it). We had another guy come in and change the radiator valves and main vents, which made things worse. The rooms near the boiler are very hot and the far ones are cold. This fall, I attended Dan's evening class on steam heat, and read the book, "We Got Steam Heat" - which of course I wish I had read before, but I guess we were just trying our best. I learned a ton from the class and the book, and am now trying to straighten out the problems.

I think I am going to try and change the vents on the long mains from Gorton #1 to #2's. I'm trying to change just one thing at a time, and see the effect rather than change a bunch of things, and not know if the changes made things better or worse. If I am not on the right track, please let me know.

Steamhead (in transit)

First, change

the Gorton #1 vents to Gorton #2. This will vent the mains much more quickly. Then, size your radiator vents to the sizes of the radiators and the runout pipes they serve. For an excellent vent sizing guide, go to the Books and More page of this site and order the e-book "Venting Steam Systems using a Vent Capacity Chart". All proceeds from this e-book go to charity.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Janet_3

Thanks...

...I will give that a try.

Anna Conda

We all gotta start from the beginning and babystep our way to experience. You're getting educated, learning about what you got, taking one step at a time - taking notes right? You're doing fine, way better than a lot of folks I've seen. None of us know everything, that's why we're all here on forums, learning and sharing. There's no better feeling than to finally get the problem all sorted out and think "I did that!" ^__^

Jack P.

Increase the anticipator setting on the new stat to lenghten the cycle time. Check the manual on how to do that. A long cycle time will put more steam in the system to heat the cold radiators. Place largest vents on the farthest cold radiators and small ones on the hottest as needed.