adjustable vents

Adjusting Vents

People have written books on this subject so I 'm not quite sure of how to best answer your question. Maybe just review the basics first. Radiator vents allow air to pass through them but close when steam reaches them which keeps the steam in the radiator so it will heat the room. Radiator vents can be either adjustable or non adjustable which means the vent orifice size is adjustable or a fixed size.  On a fixed orifice vent you have to change the complete vent if you want to change the rate at which the air leaves the radiator.On an adjustable vent since the orifice size is adjustable, you can adjust the rate at which air leaves the radiator.



The basic main idea is to get your steam system "balanced" which means all the radiators are filled with steam at the same time. Since radiators are different sizes that means that you would have to vent a larger radiator faster than a smaller one to get them both filled with steam in the same time period. There are also other factors involved that affect this such as distance from the boiler etc.



Before you try balancing your radiators you want to get make sure you system's pressure is set properly (below 2 PSI)  and the main venting are adequate and working properly

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You might want to use the Site Search function at the top right hand corner of this page and type in "radiator venting" or "balancing" as it will take you to some articles on venting which are located "Off the Wall" on this website.

Here's a good article by Dan on venting:

[url=http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/11/Hot-Tech-Tips/138/Balancing-One-Pipe-Steam-Systems]http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/11/Hot-Tech-Tips/138/Balancing-One-Pipe-Steam-Systems

You might also want to get Steve Pajek and Gerry Gill's book on venting which is available as a downloadable "e- book" at this link:

[url=http://www.heatinghelp.com/products/Books/5/146/Balancing-Steam-Systems-Using-a-Vent-Capacity-Chart-by-Gerry-Gill-and-Steve-Pajek]http://www.heatinghelp.com/products/Books/5/146/Balancing-Steam-Systems-Using-a-Vent-Capacity-Chart-by-Gerry-Gill-and-Steve-Pajek

This book gives you complete instructions on how to balance your system and lists all the common vent available so you can compare venting rates of each type.

- Rod