Balance/venting problem?

Tom S.

It says...

Slant-fin on the outside of the cover. Perhaps you can tell the material of the pipe from the picture?

The pic shown below is of the cold radiator off the short main. In this case I actually could put a gorton in there as the threads for the vent are horizontal. The wood blocks in the pic are doing nothing but holding up the vents just to show the sizing.

The other hot ones (second pic - attachment baseboard2a.jpg) have an elbow with the threads pointing up which gives almost no room unless we were to drill through as the vent is already right near the top unlike the first pic. I've removed the cover to take the pic, but the cover is the problem size-wise.

Tom

gerry gill

thats what i'd do..

i'd drill thru and install a vertical vent..gorton makes vertical vents 1/8th inch also..hoffman does too.

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Tom S.

I added.

a second picture of the "no space" vent in the message above.

Would you use a little riser to get the 1/8" threads sticking out of the cover? How would one make something like that? Or would you get a big enough hole for the vent to stick out - 1/2 in, 1/2 out kind of thing? That'd be a big hole I think.

I will try the varivalves "closed" tomorrow and see how that does too.

Thanks again,

Tom

gerry gill

yup, install a 1/8th inch nipple

and a 1/8th inch coupling as close to flush with the top..then any vertical 1/8th inch vent can be used..

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Mark Hunt

Post a picture


of the returns where they tie back into the boiler.

Mark H

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gerry gill

try

putting the 6 on the cold baseboard..can you vent the main better on the slow side?

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Tom S.

Right now

there is a Vent-Rite 35 (I think) on the cold main.

Will try the gorton 6 on the bb.

Tom

Tom S.

Here's a pic-

of the returns:

A: fresh water in

B: Dry Return from hot main

C: Drip return from cold main

Return from header

Tom

soot_seeker_2

Oh, no, the plywood!!!

I'm sure that combustible plywood is 6" away from the flue of that boiler, isn't it?

Tom S.

Very deceptive picture...

That pic is very deceptive and doesn't give a good sense of depth at all. The back of the flue box(terminology?) at the rear of the boiler is about 12" away from the plywood. And the rest of the fluepipe is definitely at least 8" away from the wood wall.

Thanks for your concern!

Tom

soot_seeker_2

Gerry,

I have that Webster book with the radiator lab pictures in it - mountains of radiators on stands with thermometers sticking out of them and lab beakers for measuring the condensate. Cool stuff...

Yea, a glass radiator. That would be neat. We could dye smoke...

Ed

John S.

completely off the subject of testing, but...

I thought it would be cool to apply a color changing paint to steam radiators. I haven't been able to find anything cost-effective, but here's an automotive urethane that could probably be used...

Alsa

Enough to drive interior decorators crazy

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gerry gill

thats neat..

you can sit across the room and tell if the steams there...

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Tom S.

My fingers are crossed...

It looks like a drain/flush/skim did the trick. Dan came today and did all that. There's more skimming to do, but at least I know how now! And the water in the sight glass isn't going down as far or bouncing very much.

The previously cold main now warms pretty quickly and so does the previously cold baseboard (which now has a gorton 5 on it).

Some of the previously hot baseboards are now last to heat so I have some balancing to do. I need to pick up a few more Gortons...

Thanks again to all who helped by posting in this thread, many of you posting lots of ideas.

Tom

Tom S.

My fingers are crossed...

(this is a repeat of a message I put somewhere in the middle of this thread, which seemed out of order)

=======

It looks like a drain/flush/skim did the trick. Dan came today and did all that. There's more skimming to do, but at least I know how now! And the water in the sight glass isn't going down as far or bouncing very much.

The previously cold main now warms pretty quickly and so does the previously cold baseboard (which now has a gorton 5 on it).

Some of the previously hot baseboards are now last to heat so I have some balancing to do. I need to pick up a few more Gortons...

Thanks again to all who helped by posting in this thread, many of you posting lots of ideas.

Tom

Mike Cascio

Upon reading all of the posts, it looks like the main to the problem baseboard is undersized by a size or two. Isn't a counterflow main supposed to be one size larger than a standard main. With 6 feet of baseboard there is approximately 50 - 55edr being drawn. Remember the piping to the baseboard is supposed to be one size larger than what it is supposed to be. I am guessing that pipe is currently 1 inch or 1 1/4. It sounds like it should be at least 1 1/2 or 2 inches to promote good counterflow. Also check the size of the valve on the baseboard, it should be at least 1 1/4.

Hope this helps, best of luck.
Michael J. Cascio

Long Beach Ed

You should tell my customers...

...that this is why my prices are $1000 higher than so many of the other guys. Only by dealing with a pro did you have someone who invested that extra day's work to skim, flush and clean that new boiler. You wouldn't believe how many so-called mechanics wouldn't think of coming back to do that.

We add a day's work to our estimates to include cleaning. Many times it takes two or three visits to get it right. There aren't any shortcuts.

Long Beach Ed

gerry gill

good !!!!!!!!!

now that steams traveling well, you should find balancing the easy part...don't be surprised if it acts up again..my last boiler install we went back and forth at least 6 or 8 times skimming and flushing..finally it cleaned up..

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John S.

Good news

Glad to hear it's working out now. I was way off. It never ceases to amaze me how dirty water or oil films can wreak such havoc on a system.

You were right all along, Tom, "Balance/venting problem?"



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Dan C.

It is amazing

how many problems a boiler can cause when it needs to be skimmed

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