On Jan 3, 2:56*pm, beecrofter wrote:
On Jan 2, 10:31*pm, Dairy Godmother wrote:





HI board. *I love my old house but am learning about it as I go -
including my one-pipe steam heating system. *The boiler is new and
works great (dont know specs) and until a recent outage here in CT it
was all working well. *Then, after a 24 hour outage, my radiators in
the office room started clanging away. *Being 'clever' I decided to
turn the radiator vent up -- which did indeed stop the clanging.
Stopping the heat in that room was no problem -- but what I didnt
realize is that it would stop heat in other rooms upstairs. *Now, I
put the vent back and none of the upstairs radiators seem to be
working properly. *They are all barely warm, but its definitely colder
upstairs now. *And oil is expensive!

What did I do wrong? Did I likely dislodge some 90 year old grime that
is now blocking the steam?

I don't have any experience with this stuff, and am happy to hire my
plumber back, but I'd like to learn if its a simple fix.

thanks

Clanging is water in pipes not sloped towards the boiler in order to
drain. You may have to shim up the radiators to raise the pipe
attached to them.
Vents work to let air from the system and steam in. The vent farthest
from the boiler should be open the most if you want heat there and as
you get closer to the boiler thay can be closed a little more.
Check the boiler sight glass every few days weekly as a minimum and
blow off the low water cutout to remove gunk. Keep the water 1/2 to
2/3 high in the sight glass.
I do not recall the brand but the best vents are a smooth cylinder
about the size of a 1" high stack of quarters with a small slide near
the top for adjustment.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A Vari Vent is that small vent, for a home it would work but for an
apartment building you dont want to give tenants a way to increase
heat. in apartments I use Gorton 4 through D.