Pennsport steam heat and air conditioning repair, close to the river

Why steam still heats so many Pennsport rowhomes

Pennsport runs down toward the Delaware River on the east side of South Philadelphia, and its blocks are mostly brick rowhomes. Most Philadelphia homes were built before 1950, according to Census figures The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, and a house of that age was usually laid out around a boiler and cast iron radiators. It is common to open a Pennsport basement door and find a steam boiler feeding one-pipe radiators, sometimes original, sometimes a newer boiler set on the old piping.

In a house like that, most steam complaints trace back to water and air. A radiator hammers because the pipe feeding it has lost its pitch and holds condensate. A front room stays cold because its air vent is painted shut. A boiler short-cycles because the sight glass is dirty and the low water cutoff reads wrong. We check the near-boiler piping, skim off oil when the waterline surges in the glass, swap failed vents and set the pressure control back to the low setting steam was designed around.

Then July arrives. Top floors under a flat roof hold heat long after sunset, and a house heated by radiators has no ducts to carry central air upstairs. Window units that have run for years tend to give out on stretches like July 15 to July 17, 2024, when the city's Health Department declared a Heat Health Emergency. We repair what you have, or fit a ductless head on the floors that need it. The Walt Whitman Bridge comes down in South Philadelphia, not far from Pennsport's blocks, so our trip from West Deptford is a single river crossing.