Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
Best Of
Re: Does shutting off zones save money?
Do you ever "monitor" your boiler to get an idea of the cycle run time lengths ?
Long burns are best.
Long burns are best.
The Rise and Fall of Radiator Foundries: A Two Century Journey to Casting Radiators for Today
THE GENERAL SOCIETY OF MECHANICS & TRADESMEN OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
FOUNDED 1785
Labor, Literature and Landmark Lecture Series
Fall 2023
The Rise and Fall of Radiator Foundries: A Two Century Journey to Casting Radiators for Today
With Nick and Annie Baylis, Owners, Castrads
Tuesday, October 24th at 6 p.m.
An Online and In-Person Program
To register in-person, please click here.
To register for online attendance, please click here.
General Admission: $15
Seniors & General Society Members: $10
Students: $5
Advance registration is required.
All registrants will receive a link to the recording approximately 10 days after the lecture.
Castrads is a small, family-run business that manufactures new cast iron radiators in Manchester, England. This talk with the husband and wife owners of Castrads, Nick and Annie Baylis, will cover the development of heating technology in textile mills both sides of the Atlantic, the early manufacturers, the American Radiator Company's domination of the global market, and on to the eastward march of foundries as demand in the west diminished.
Castrads is now casting radiators in England fifty years after the last English radiator foundry closed its doors. The talk will also cover the technical challenges associated with onshoring this long-lost skill.
In 2018, Castrads opened a showroom in Manhattan and a warehouse in Brooklyn to serve the US market with new cast iron radiators and a refurbishment service. This talk will also celebrate the launch of their new showroom in SoHo - Manhattan's cast iron district. For more information on Castrads, please visit www.castrads.com.
Nick and Annie Baylis met while studying for their undergraduate degrees at University College London. After his masters degree, Mr. Baylis began working in the family business, Castrads, in 2009. Ms. Baylis joined the company in 2018 after a career in translation and research, when the couple relocated to New York to set up Castrads North America.
The process of refining their products for tomorrow’s heating systems and on-shoring production continues to fuel their interest in cast iron radiators as markers of social and political change over the past 150 years. The couple now live in Stockport, England with their two daughters.
Re: Ok...now I'm a believer.....
Carbide is a bit scary how hard it is.
I've taken things made out of hardened steel that someone couldn't drill through at all and milled through it like plastic with a carbide endmill.
I've taken things made out of hardened steel that someone couldn't drill through at all and milled through it like plastic with a carbide endmill.
ChrisJ
2
Re: Ok...now I'm a believer.....
Oh Yeah! When cutting ferrous metal, carbide tipped blades are your friend!
Pumpguy
1
Re: The last word about c-wire thermostats and wiring diagrams.
Common is confusing too. In this case common is the unswitched side of the power source that is connected directly to the load but if you just said common to me with no knowledge of hvac I would think of it as the switched side of the power source.When you hear "common" in electrical, you think of a switched wire?
I think of neutral.
ChrisJ
1
Re: Understanding heat flows in high mass heating systems in old houses
We have an 1855 farmhouse in MI that we renovated using all of the existing cast iron radiators and got some more to boot, plus some panel radiators and heated towel racks. It is a high mass system of 16 or 17 radiators. We are using a Viessmann 222F mod-con boiler. No thermostats in the house. I also made a point to use 5/8 sheetrock throughout the house and it has a two-coat plaster finish. High mass. Works great.
psb75
2
Re: Hydrolevel VXT
Mad Dog_2 said:I built my Steam Vapor System from scratch starting in 2001. One 1/2" Apollo Ball Valve. No water feeder. I understand in a commercial situation, but the whole reason for a VXT is to track feed water usage, right? Find and fix the leaks and you can go with several Mc Donnell Miller Models that are very trouble free. I don't know why MM doesn't have a metering model to compete with the VXT?. Mad Dog 🐕
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Hydrolevel-45-130-WM-1-General-Purpose-Heavy-Duty-Water-Meter-w-3-4-Adapters-0-5-to-35-GPM
ChrisJ
1
Re: Removal of 80 gallon stone lined water heater
I love it! Reminds me of the man that taught me most of what I know mechanically. He just turned 80 and is still working. A year ago I was working on a shutdown he was running at a mill and had finished the first job he had given me. I went looking for him - found him changing a 6” steam seperator by himself with a couple chain falls. Had the old one down and the new one rigged and ready to lift.
Matt_67
1
Removal of 80 gallon stone lined water heater
Back in May I decided to finally replace our 80 gallon stone lined Vaughn electric water heater. It was over 20 years old but not leaking and may have lasted forever but it's an energy pig for two people. These Vaughn stone lined tank were very popular with the electric utilities installed them (including this one before we owned this place) for years. But our local utility gave up on that a few years back and said "you now own the tank."
Thanks a lot!!!
I knew it was going to be a PITA and wanted to get it done before it let go or I got any older. It probably would outlast me!
So, I bought a new 40 gallon and installed it back in May. The old heater with the cement lining is about 400# empty. I got it up on some 1" pipe for rollers and pushed it to the side where it sat and sat LOL
I stripped the plastic jacket off it and then all the 2" foam. Originally, I thought I would cut it with a grinder with a cutting disk and then break up the concrete. The stairs are very tight with a sharp turn at the top and bottom. No outside entrance to the cellar.
The cellar is semi-finished off so I hung plastic around the tank area and with safety goggles and a mask started cutting. It just made too much of a mess and the neighbors (we are in a condo) complained about the noise. I folded back part of the steel (1/8" thick) and tried busting the concrete and that was going to be tough. I also tried a Sawzall and bought a metal cutting blade for my Skill saw and that didn't work out well either
So, then I tried call a few junk guys to take it out. No one wanted anything to do with it. The one honest guy told me to cut it up he would have to charge me over $xxxx.xx to take it out.
Time for plan B
So today (while my girlfriend was gone for the day) was my time to strike.
I used a Come a Long and pulled it up the stairs which worked like a dream. Once I was all set up I had it upstairs in 10-15 min.
I used a 5/8" eye bolt with a rod coupling and a piece of rod with some nuts and washers a made a hole in the sheet rock wall.
Now you know why I waited till she was gone.
I put a 3' 2 x 6 on each side of the wall to sandwich the wall. No damage to the sheet rock at all except for the 1" hole I made which I patched.
So, the good news is I got it out of the celler!!
Bad news is it's sitting in the kitchen so I am still feeling the heat.
I got to wait to get my brother to give me a hand getting it out the door down 3 steps and onto my trailer.
But I let my Neice borrow the trailer and when I texted her today, she said it is sitting in her yard full of mulch and has a flat tire.
When I stretched out my come a long it was 3" short. So, I had a few xtra shackles I made up the distance with. Of course when I got up to the top step I ran out of cable and had to disconnect the shackles. I drilled a hole in the tank and used a piece of 1/4" wire rope and some clips up and back up through the HW outlet to hook on to the tank.
So the saga continues!!
Thanks a lot!!!
I knew it was going to be a PITA and wanted to get it done before it let go or I got any older. It probably would outlast me!
So, I bought a new 40 gallon and installed it back in May. The old heater with the cement lining is about 400# empty. I got it up on some 1" pipe for rollers and pushed it to the side where it sat and sat LOL
I stripped the plastic jacket off it and then all the 2" foam. Originally, I thought I would cut it with a grinder with a cutting disk and then break up the concrete. The stairs are very tight with a sharp turn at the top and bottom. No outside entrance to the cellar.
The cellar is semi-finished off so I hung plastic around the tank area and with safety goggles and a mask started cutting. It just made too much of a mess and the neighbors (we are in a condo) complained about the noise. I folded back part of the steel (1/8" thick) and tried busting the concrete and that was going to be tough. I also tried a Sawzall and bought a metal cutting blade for my Skill saw and that didn't work out well either
So, then I tried call a few junk guys to take it out. No one wanted anything to do with it. The one honest guy told me to cut it up he would have to charge me over $xxxx.xx to take it out.
Time for plan B
So today (while my girlfriend was gone for the day) was my time to strike.
I used a Come a Long and pulled it up the stairs which worked like a dream. Once I was all set up I had it upstairs in 10-15 min.
I used a 5/8" eye bolt with a rod coupling and a piece of rod with some nuts and washers a made a hole in the sheet rock wall.
Now you know why I waited till she was gone.
I put a 3' 2 x 6 on each side of the wall to sandwich the wall. No damage to the sheet rock at all except for the 1" hole I made which I patched.
So, the good news is I got it out of the celler!!
Bad news is it's sitting in the kitchen so I am still feeling the heat.
I got to wait to get my brother to give me a hand getting it out the door down 3 steps and onto my trailer.
But I let my Neice borrow the trailer and when I texted her today, she said it is sitting in her yard full of mulch and has a flat tire.
When I stretched out my come a long it was 3" short. So, I had a few xtra shackles I made up the distance with. Of course when I got up to the top step I ran out of cable and had to disconnect the shackles. I drilled a hole in the tank and used a piece of 1/4" wire rope and some clips up and back up through the HW outlet to hook on to the tank.
So the saga continues!!
