answers please

GW

lots more info needed. are we talking cast iron versus cast iron? are we talking steam? If yes to both, i see no difference at all. If no to one or both questions, fill us in!

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Anthony Praga

what is better

my mom, my sister and i are moving and i was wonder what is better in a house....

are the old radiators better or are the new ones better. this house has the tall ones that are well old.

thanks for your help

anthony praga

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Considering many cast iron rads are over a century old and still working fine, I suspect many will last into the 22nd century...

Really old steam rads sometimes develop "nipple rot" where they start leaking between sections. Hot water rads don't suffer that problem--their only real enemy is freezing.

I doubt that modern steel panel rads will be as long lasting--even comparing a new one to an old iron rad. The main reason new cast iron rads are quite rare is price--they are extremely expensive.

JohnNY

Define \"better\".

All radiators are 100% efficient.

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jp_2

better Insulation

is better! new cast Iron or old, pick the house that is better insulated. or the one thats easier to insulate.

Anthony Praga

thanks

well i got the answer that i needed thanks alot guys. they are the big cast iron radiators. the older ones. i just was not sure if it would be better to get something new or if it would be better just to keep the older ones. thanks again for the help


anthony praga

Aaron Gibson

I'm doing a steam conversion right now and during the sales call, the owner told me that all the other contractors suggested replacing them with baseboard. Well, I got the job and the cast is staying. I'm sad to think of all that great cast iron that got tossed into the town dump instead of being used all these years.

mikep7777

New England Demolition Salvage...

In Wareham MA there's a pretty large architectural salvage place (NEDS - New England Demolition Salvage) that sells CI radiators - the plain style go for about $10 a section, fancy ones go for $15 or so. A similar but smaller place in Somerville MA allegedly sells them for closer to $30 a section.

The place is huge, and they seem to do a good amount of business. Last year I bought a couple of older radiators to replace some mid-50's style radiators that didn't match the rest of my system.

At the time, the owner told me that was selling a lot of radiators to a guy from Ireland - apparently the guy would ship containers full of radiators (well, not full, but as full as they can be) back to the UK. I assume these were to maintain some semblance of architectural accuracy in new additions to older homes, but I don't know.

If you are pulling radiators out in the area, I'm sure he'd take them off your hands instead of letting them go to the landfill...

Boilerpro_5

It does seem to me that....

the older rads produce higher percentages of radiant heat than newer models. Not sure, but it seems that way and the columnar designs appear to attempt to prvide much more radiating surface to the room. Also, shallow rads will give you more output (I've read) and a higher percentage of radiant heat (I expect) than deeper models.

Boilerpro

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