Heating Help

One side hot, one side cold

I just bought a house with two steam boilers. One for the first floor (1600 Square foot) and one for the second floor, also 1600 square feet. One appartment downstairs, two appartments upstairs.
It's a one pipe system.
Now this is my first experience with steam and well, one side of the radiator is hot and the other side cold. This seams very odd to me.
What's up with that?

Probably quite normal...

but then again...

A steam radiator gets steam from it's intake side -- the one with the valve on the pipe -- and the air is released from the vent on the other side.  As steam comes into the radiator, the intake side and top will get warm (in fact, hot!) first, and only gradually will steam fill the radiator and get it hot all the way across.  This will only happen if the boiler runs long enough -- and the boiler will only run just as long as needed to satisfy the thermostat.

On colder days, the boiler will run longer and the more of the radiator will get hot.

So... if the thermostat is satisfied, and the rooms are warm enough, it's probably perfectly normal.

That is... if I understand your comment correctly.

It's normal

That is normal. Steam comes in through the inlet and will slowly work its way across the radiator towards the vent. On mild days it may only get hot in a few sections. The colder it gets outside the further across it will heat as the boiler will cycle for longer. On the coldest day of the year it should be hot all the way across.

There are different kinds of vents available that let out air at different rates, some are variable. These can be used to control how quickly a given radiator heats up (within reason). Some examples are a Hoffman 1A or VentRite 11.

thanks

Thanks guys, greatly appreciated.