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How to Set a Pressuretrol

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HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 711
edited October 2024 in THE MAIN WALL
imageHow to Set a Pressuretrol

If you have a steam boiler you’re also going to have a pressuretrol. I’ve always liked that word because it’s a marriage of the words pressure and control, both of which have much to do with our older steam-heating systems.

Read the full story here

Mad Dog_2

Comments

  • CarlM
    CarlM Member Posts: 13

    Here they are. The right handed screwdriver is cheaper.

    IMG_1007.jpeg
    SamEnergyPlusIntplm.Mad Dog_2
  • mikeciulla
    mikeciulla Member Posts: 1

    Hello Dan,

    Thank you for the excellent article about pressuretrols.!

    I live in a small two-story, two-family house and heat just the two floors. The two Utica boilers were set to a cut-in of 1/2 psig and a differential of 3 psig. I left the cut-ins as is, and reduced the differential from 3 to 1 psig.

    Question: Is the lower cut-out pressure OK for the radiator vents to work properly?

    mike

  • Intplm.
    Intplm. Member Posts: 2,730
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1812879#Comment_1812879

    Do you need both if you are ambidextrous? lol

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,426
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1833595#Comment_1833595

    Absolutely. In fact, the vents will be much happier at the lower pressure. So will the rest of the system. So will your wallet.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    ethicalpaul
  • pugman2
    pugman2 Member Posts: 11

    I still have the last radiator on the steam line that pushes out water at the air vent, when goin' from the overnight setting of 65* to the 7 AM call for heat set on 70*. Near the end of the heating cycle that steam air vent blows out steam and water into a can under the vent.

    The Presuretroll is set at just over one lb. Is there a method to test it ? Can I lower the settings ? This radiator is a first floor radiator.

    All the other air vents are workin' correctly. We have tried everything we can think of to eliminate the problem. All the usual corrections have been tried.

    Thanks !!

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 26,426

    That's a big setback for a steam system, and pushes everything on the system about as hard as it can go.

    That said, you say you have tried all the usual corrections. Just to be sure, have you tried replacing that vent?

    On the pressuretrol — do you have a low pressure gauge (0 to 5 psig) on the system in addition to the required 30 psig gauge? If so, what does it read when the boiler is cut off by the pressuretrol?

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • patrykrebisz
    patrykrebisz Member Posts: 21

    Pressuretroll is a simple mechanical device. As such, the number scale means nothing. The 2 can mean 2psi, or 4 or 1, or as sometimes is the case, nothing.

    Inside you have a rubber diaphram that pushes on a needle. What effect the needle has on the scale is adjusted by a screw in pressuretrol's back (covered by a small plate that has markings from the factory giving us the illusion that it was set corectly).

    The only way to properly adjust it is to set it on a simple work bench. (Y with one side connected to the device and another to 0-5psi guage with a hand pump to intoduce pressure into the system). You might be shocked how far out of spec your pressuretrol might be.

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