pressuretrol...and a vent question

tom_82

I'm becoming an obsessed homeowner. Every day I check the wall. I might even drive to NJ for one of the seminars (i live in Boston)

First, I was reading about pressuretrols (all subtractive}the other day and I have a question.
We have three on our boiler.
Left above the LW cut off reads main 2#, cut off is way down either as low as it can go or something under 1#.

Middle I believe is the back up reading the main at 10#.

Right is above the LW float that swithes on the pump from the reserve h2o, main is set to 4# and cut off, again, is somewhere lower than 1#

I have never seen the mercury in any other position than tilted 45degrees down from left to right...could they be stuck or is the movement very subtle?

Vent question.
Pipes are hot, aroound 190 on main, they get up to around 160 or 170 on run-offs then they dive at the risers.(using an infared gun to check temp) Theres no heat in the radiators connected to the riser. I checked the vents by blowing through them. They seem ok.
TOnight i'm gonna take the vents off and see if steam makes it's way up. If it doesn't, is it safe to assume there is something wrong with the supply valve?
Thanks
TOm

Steamhead (in transit)

One of these

might be to switch the burner from high to low fire and back. You're the Tom who lives in a real big building, right? This setup is sometimes found on bigger boilers, but not nearly as often as it should be.

How about posting some pix?

The steam not entering the risers sounds like trapped air. You might be right about the shutoff valves.

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tom_82

Thanks again steam head

Thanks,
Yes that's me. I'm still trying to figure things out.
It is compelling stuff.
I am going to post some pics this week.
Last night I removed air vents from radiators and no luck.
I went into the basement when I HEARD the air getting pushed out of our vents (we live on the first floor) and opened up the blow out at the steam trap just below the fussy risers.

The riser temp was 79 at the base when i arrived. Opening the blow out a gallon or more of clear h20 came out, then just a dribble, then it bagan to spit...as it spat it started to blow steam I measured the temp with the infa red gun and watched the temp climb at the base of the riser from 79 to 169 in less thean a minute!
Water came out the entire time that steam did but the 3rd floor tennant still didn't get any heat.

Oh,I talked to a potential steam guy from watertown MA I really need a pro to come in and check us out. Everytime we call our present contractor we get a different tech...and don't seem to get anywhere. (they also supply our heating oil) hmmmmm.
Pics coming soon
TOm