STEAM DOCTOR

Uneven heat giving you the chills? 

Noisy radiators giving you headaches?

Heating bills giving you high blood pressure?

STEAM DOCTOR HAS THE CURE.

Steam heat specialist

Doug Morris

Challenge

Customer new to home. Complaining about water gushing out of steam radiator air vents. Uneven heat. Banging. ETC!!

Approach

Evaluate near boiler piping, main air vents,radiator air vents and pitch, and water condition.

Solution

1. Header was too small and not high enough above the boiler water level. Cut out old head and replaced with properly sized and oriented header(header height, pitch and takeoff orientation).

2. There are three mains. One main received a Gorton #2 air vent, one main received two Gorton #1 air vents and one main received a single Gorton #1 air vent. The main vent sizing was based on Gerry Gills venting handbook. The idea is to ensure that steam reached the ends of the all the mains quickly and at the same time.

3. Replaced radiator air vents with properly sized air vents(again using Gerry's handbook).

4. Boiler water was dirty with sludge and oil. Filled and drained boiler numerous times and skimmed boiler of water surface oil.

RESULT: Radiators heat evenly! No water coming from air vents! There still is some banging from one radiator. That is probably because the general contractor moved the radiator and did not pipe it properly. Not much to do about that now. Repair would involve ripping up floors and/or walls, which is something that the homeowner does not want to do (although I think he does want to rip up the general contractor).