The air valve on one of my steam radiators is very noisy and while not actually “spitting”, the air coming out is wet.
The radiator is shimmed and has a slight incline toward the valve. Should I tilt the radiator more? Is there any risk of damaging the pipe connected to the valve in the process..it is already raised almost an inch? Does the valve need to be replaced if it has water in it? Thanks.


Comments

  1. agree with eman1234. boiler guys like to up the pressure to the max for no good reason. not only does this waste fuel, but it creates various other problems in the system.
    I’ve been reading about steam from heatinghelp.com — very usefull stuff, and now I feel much more confident about my steam radiators and boiler settings, etc. Typical house needs the lowest pressure setting only — mine was set way too high, boiler was shutting off from increased pressure, among other issues (short cycling, bad heating, etc).
    anyways, an inch is already A LOT. water just needs a slight decline to run down. move it too much and you risk cracking a pipe — not good.
    check out heatinghelp.com, get the ‘we got steam heat’ book…

  2. The low point of the radiator should be the shut-off valve. If the air vent is releasing steam, then, yes it should be replaced.