Win a few, lose few- cheap Jacobus knockoff edition

Jells · March 3

I decided to throw caution to the wind and ordered a 6 pack of cheap vents from Amazon for $73 despite the reviews that some were bad out of the box. In my case 3 were bad! I tested by just blowing through them. But when I went to return them, they offered me $40 back instead, and keep what I had.

Now, these vents each came with 5 orifices. It always frustrated me that you could not just order a bag of these. Now, for $33 I got 3 vents that may work for while and 30 orifices! Seemed like a worthwhile deal just for the orifices at $1 each, I have 14 rads and a lot of balancing to do. Now I'll never be cursing that I don't have the right one, or be having to drill one out.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPMK5WFW

mattmia2 · March 4

you can buy the orifices, just a pack of all of them, not all one size. also there is an adjustable vent. $15 for a real vent costs a lot less than rotting out a boiler because no one noticed the cheap one wasn't holding and no one noticed the auto feeder was doing a lot of feeding.

mattmia2 · March 4

https://www.supplyhouse.com/Jacobus-Maid-O-Mist-0220-5L-1-8-Adjustable-Angle-Steam-Vent-Valve-Kit

$18 for the vent with all 5 orifices.

Jells · March 4

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890382#Comment_1890382

But I don't need all new vents, I really needed a supply of orifices, and now I have them much cheaper than I could have just bought them separately, they're $16.58 for a set of five at supplyhouse.

mattmia2 · March 4

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890386#Comment_1890386

you might as well get the vent, it is essentially the same price. also can drill them out or solder them up and drill them out.the pricing of just the orifices doesn't make sense.

Jells · March 4

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890387#Comment_1890387

No, the pricing doesn't make sense. But I am really all set right now.

ChrisJ · March 4

Everyone keeps complaining that they cannot buy good vents anymore and that even the name brands have dropped in quality drastically.

I suspect this is exactly why.

patrykrebisz · March 4

Buying those of Amazon is the issue. If you buy from SupplyHouse, most will be working.

I'm guilty of going the Amazon route. (and having to return half of those). Then SH rout and getting all working units.

Jells · March 4

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890469#Comment_1890469

"this" is what? How do cheap chinese vents on Amazon cause name brand vents to fail?

ARobertson13 · March 6

I could not keep returning vents to supply house and other and replacing them. It did not make me look good with my clients and their residents. The quality of vents has become so poor and there are so many "out of box" failures that every year I will purchase several dozen vents open them up, clean them out, reposition the bi metallic strip, seal them, test them and install them when clients need them. I was even talking with a local metal pot manufacturer about manufacturing my own.

Jells · March 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890770#Comment_1890770

Wow, that is some dedication!

ethicalpaul · March 6

Yeah if I were supplying vents to customers I would feel the need to check each one first, it's kind of ridiculous.

Most of you might have seen that really frustrated homeowner here who got banned because he was so irate with receiving so many failed vents even from supplyhouse.com

Jells · March 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890779#Comment_1890779

Any sense of the failure rate of ones that initially work? Or at least you can blow through when you take them out of the box, lol.

ethicalpaul · March 6

you can blow right side up to see if they pass air

Then you can turn them upside down and blow to see if they can mechanically close

But only by exposing them to steam input can you truly see if they will close in actual service.

Gordon has a video with a test rig but I would probably set up a test antler on my boiler since I have one

mattmia2 · March 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890785#Comment_1890785

Putting them in boiling water and rigging up a tube to blow through them or better yet to blow through them with the type of mighty vac that can do pressure or vacuum would probably suffice to test the element. boiling water should get the element hot enough to close.

ethicalpaul · March 6

yeah I tend to agree but real steam is a sure thing test if you have it available

ARobertson13 · March 7

I have tested and adjusted hundreds of these vents. I have my own testing equipment. It is true that the only way you can determine if a vent will work, is to attach it to a radiator that is of the type you intend to use [Tube or Column ect.] it for and apply steam the same way you would in a radiator or mains. There is a relationship between the vent case closing temperature and the probability of failure. The higher the closing temperature the greater the failure rate. This is true for "out of the box" vents or "in service" vents. I will not give you a temperature range. The other factor is foreign material or material from the manufacturing process that interferes with closing. Some of these substances cannot be removed by boiling. They must be removed by opening the vent up and direct contact with some type of tarnish remover like CLR.

mattmia2 · March 7

clr is just acid. it used to be phosphoric acid but i think it is lactic acid now.

ARobertson13 · March 8

I should mention that after using CLR or some tarnish remover you must rinse the vent out. Also, my doing this is not just dedication. If you and others say this guy is very good with steam systems and they arrange to have you get access to apartments [Which is not easy and some units cost over $500K] and you install vents that fail, you do not look good. When I was working for T Mobile in the 90s we used cabled extensively back then. You could not go on a roof and install a cable that would fail so you would pay in stead of $78, $90 for pre tested cables. It was not profitable to be called back to the site shut it down to replace the cable. This is true for me and I am sure others who are contractors dealing with steam systems. There is also Ben Zs law in New York City which require that radiators are checked for rooms which children occupy.

mattmia2 · March 9

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1890787#Comment_1890787

a pot of boiling water and some tubing is probably good enough to figure out if you're going to be leaving a bad vent on a job and are going to have to spend 1/3 to 1/2 your day going back and changing it

ARobertson13 · March 9

I do not have time to go over the thermodynamics of vents and why they do not close. These test: Turning them upside down, heating them in hot water, using a heat gun ect. do not work in determining if a vent will close and stay closed during the steam on cycle when attached to a radiator. Everyone wants a quick fix. there are none.

Win a few, lose few- cheap Jacobus knockoff edition

Comments

Categories