Forum Archive

As the season has progressed I’ve gotten more and more gurgling & sloshing and just this week leaking from the air valve. My steam heat system is a bit odd: I have a three floor high stoop brownstone (plus) basement. The prior owner reconfigured the heat in the basement, garden and parlor floors with a Burnham 3-zone hydronic boiler. He left the cast iron risers and radiators to the third floor and replaced the Steam boiler with a new Burnham. The idea was that the tenant was on the third floor and would pay their own heat. As it turned out we reconfigured the house placing the rental on the garden floor. So now I have a boiler dedicated to the bedroom and den!

It’s a typical configuration: two risers, one front to two radiators (large room and small room over parlor hall) and one riser to the back two rooms. The small rooms barely need any heat at all. The large rooms are cold.

I am having Brooklyn Insulation blow in insulation to the attic this Friday.

Question: Would a clogged Air Eliminator cause for the water build up (gurgling & sloshing and leaking) in the radiator on that riser?

Also I am going to replace all the air valves. On the front of the house (south exposure and long main on the boiler) I was thinking of putting a Gorton “C” in the large room and a 5 ort 6 in the small room. For the back of house, a “D” and a 4 in the small room that is closest to the thermostat (which has had the radiator shut completely off for the last few years).

I would appreciate any comments on the configuration and balancing of this strange 4 radiator system located floors away from their “mother ship.”

Thanks.