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Loud hissing from nearly all radiators during this cold spell

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  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 8,405

    First, you don't really need clean water. It's fine to let it get a little brown. Toward the end of the heating season you can add a couple gallons and flush one out to reduce sediment buildup.

    But the key is to increase the pH of the boiler water. See my video:

    https://youtu.be/Bx8NryCUkng

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

    KC_JonesDay_Tripper
  • Day_Tripper
    Day_Tripper Member Posts: 42
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1885008#Comment_1885008

    I replaced the 30 PSI gauge a few days ago with a 0-5 PSI gauge and linked to a video of my system running. It appears to cut out at 1.8 PSI.

    Concerning the vents, I contacted supply house and they are sending me a replacement #1 vent. I'll probably have to contact Gorton about the #2. I completely cleaned out my pigtail before this heating season and even went as far are to completely replace it when I installed the 0-5 gauge a few days ago. There should be absolutely no reason my main vents have failed this soon.

  • Day_Tripper
    Day_Tripper Member Posts: 42

    @Goodhap trying to figure these systems out is just one big scam. Just try and get it good enough so you can spend your time (and money) elsewhere. You're never going to overcome all the mistakes previous moron homeowners or clown plumbers have made. You just need to learn enough to handle a few small maintenance tasks so you can go about your day doing something more useful with your time.

    Intplm.
  • Captain Who
    Captain Who Member Posts: 584
    edited January 29

    Everyone's system is different when there is a whole spectrum of installation qualities out there. Don't let someone tell you a one size fits all answer regarding how brown visually your water can be. Measuring TSS (total suspended solids) isn't easy so watch your sight glass. My system is so sensitive to water quality that I have put an engineering scale on my sight glass and I can quantify the surge up and down. Right now it is 1/4 in. at the beginning of steaming settling down later in the steaming cycle to maybe only 1/8 in. This is two weeks after draining and flushing and refilling with pre-boiled and re-bottled steam distilled water treated with Rectorseal 8-way. YMMV.

  • AdmiralYoda
    AdmiralYoda Member Posts: 758
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1885012#Comment_1885012

    The most important consideration for having clean water is to stop adding fresh water! Fresh water has plenty of oxygen which causes corrosion and makes rusty/muddy water. It sounds counterintuitive but the more clean water you add, the dirtier your boiler will be.

    Find and fix those leaks! Before I knew better I had a leaky radiator. It was on the top side between sections so it only leaked steam so I didn't really care as it didn't make a mess. During the cold spells I was adding a couple gallons of makeup water weekly. I thought this was normal. I always had muddy water no matter how often I flushed it.

    I fixed that radiator and now I only have to add makeup water once or twice per season!

    RectorSeal 8-way also helps considerably. It has some magic chemicals in there but it is really good at adjusting the pH of the water. A pH of around 10 will essentially stop corrosion inside the boiler so the water stays clean much longer.

    Every now and then I drain a bit out of the boiler drain and float LWCO and it comes out completely clean. No sediment at all.

    Just be aware that the directions on the 8-way are more for commercial boilers. Use 0.75-1oz per gallon of water in your boiler. The 8-way will also do some cleaning so you may find your boiler water getting cloudy. That is all the scale and junk that has built up over time. After the first year or two of using 8-way in my boiler it stays nice and clean and clear.

    ethicalpaul
  • Captain Who
    Captain Who Member Posts: 584
    edited January 29

    Good points, but also carbonic acid created in steam mains and dry returns (mine are brass though which is good) by the constant exposure of basically distilled water to air, which has a high affinity to absorbing CO2 which leads to carbonic acid causes corrosion of black iron pipes on the interior. I posted this elsewhere but take a look at this from my 16 ft. rotted steam main replacement job I did. Where did this rusted material go to? I think we all know the answer to that.

    20260123_072536.jpg

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