Tapping for radiator air vent

tommyoil

getting some fittings (a tee some nipples and some ells)and adding a vent that way. You wont be jeapordizing the radiator and will accomplish the same thing. Just a suggestion.

Bill_110

Tapping for radiator air vent

Dan Holohan mentions an old trick of venting a large radiator by tapping for a second air vent below the first one. Well I found some taps, an appropriate sized bit, drilled into a piece of scrap iron, threaded it and put on a vent. As I examine my actual radiators I realize that they have a special built up area where the air vent goes in. If I tap below this I am going into the comparatively thin wall of radiator fin iron - I wonder if this is thick enough to thread? Unfortunately I don't have any old radiators to exeriment with. I notice on some radiator designs it looks like they have a thicker straight section down along the end that looks more suitable for tappng. Mine unfortunately are a thinner curved fin surface except for the built up air vent tapping. If I make a hole in the radiator I can't mangage to thread a vent in, is there some type of filler I can use to seal it off?

mark ransley

Before you double vent try a Vari Vent, works for me, Is radiator got the proper angle to drain, my floor guy made them level and I am having problems of less heat. I also have a few double vented, but it could be bad main vents also.

Bill_110

I have vari-valves in the radiators now. They used to vent decently but knuckleheads bullheaded the connection to my steam mains when they put in the new boiler. It's given me an education, now I know why you don't bullhead - unequal distribution of steam! Still I do have two big radiators that outsize the rest substantially.

When I bought the vari-valves I read their literature on the internet. They suggested maximum venting for maximum sized radiators, no matter their distance from the boiler. This seemed to fall in with what I thought I had read on a couple of sites that I think were quoting Dan Holohans book. However when I checked the archive of his (DH) articles on this site he seemed to be saying that the two vents on the large radiator should each vent slowly (ie have small openings). I'm not sure the tee idea would work if his theory (or at least how I interpret it) is correct, because he implied that the independent vertical positioning inside the radiator was the key factor.

I'd be the first to admit I may well not be grasping this correctly. His book probably explains more, but I'm reading all the free copies of his articles on this site first. I'm hoping that in the interval maybe a copy of his work will turn up at one of the many rummage sales I go to these days. I figure if I can get designer clothes I could never afford otherwise, and new $100 shoes, for 50 cents or a dollar, maybe some former steam enthusiast deadman's family will donate his steam book collection and I can pick them up for a couple bucks. In the meantime his articles make entertaining reading as well as being informative.