Limited space for replacing vertical vents ... what to do?

Robespierre (aka Jim)

Hi, all. The helpfulness of this group never ceases to amaze me. I have a 60+ year old house with a very recently installed oil burner. The installers were kind enough not to put an autofill for me AND had a leaking inflow valve that overfilled the system consistently for who knows how long before I bought the house and for a period of time after I bought the house until I educated myself about how the system was supposed to work. I am about to replace my main with a Gorton #2 (since the main is leaking) and then will set about replacing the individual vents. I like the bi-metallic design of the Gorton vents but the radiators were installed with vertical taps (tap is on the side but then points up) that do not leave enough room for a Gorton design to be able to be screwed in. My question therefore is: can I attach an snake-like extender to the vertical tap that would allow me to attach a horizontal mount Gorton vent (I have one in the kitchen that this was done to) or do I simply use someone else's vent (and if so, which one)? Thanks everyone.

Ken_40

Vertical \"trap\"?

Sound like someone had a bunch of vertical vents and simply added a short nipple and elbow to alter the 1/8" thread in the rad to vertical and then used a vertical vent. Gorton also made and probably still makes vertical mounts (most of their main vents already are), but why wouldn't you simply remove the nipp and ell and just screw the Gorton vent directly into the radiator?

The term "trap" assumes a puddle of water somehow, That is NOT what should be there. Is the problem simply my misunderstanding of your choice of terminology? Or is there really a "trap" between the existing rads and the vents presently installed?

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