Old One pipe Radiator Valve Seats...

Leaky

...are they repairable?  I have a situation with a customer doing a lot of remodeling, painting, etc.  With the cooler nights arriving, the heat does run from time to time but the angle radiator valves at two removed radiators leak very badly, lowering the waterline and really steaming up the house.  Is there an inexpensive fix to these old valve seats or are new replacement valves in order?  Of course I could cap the lines but then what would I have learned...  Thanks everyone for your help.

Steamhead

It's probably the washers in those valves

rather than the seats. Take them apart and see what diameter they are. You may have to go to a supplier of industrial/commercial size valves to get replacements, or cut them yourself from a sheet of neoprene. At this point, many people would simply replace the valves- but new ones just can't match the looks of those old nickel-plated beauties. 

nicholas bonham-carter

valve seats

in addition to steamhead's advice, i would suggest checking the steam pressure. if it as low as required [8 oz.], you should not get much steam coming out no matter how bad the valves are. putting caps on the outlet of the valve may be tricky due to the different proprietary threads. replacing the valves has its own problems as you will most likely have to replace the spud in the radiator which doesn't like moving after all these years!!--nbc

Leaky

Thank you

I obtained replacement washer discs for the two radiator valves in question, but was unable to open the valves even with a 2 foot pipe wrench.  It looks like replacement is in order- or as the DIY customer says, "I'll just put the radiator back in if I need to run the steam heat before I'm done painting."  So, maybe not.



BTW the pressuretrol is set to its lowest setting, I don't think pressure is an issue.  Thank you.

nicholas bonham-carter

lowest pressure setting?

when we were testing our new boiler installation, i set the pressuretrol [supplied with the boiler] to its lowest setting. i then noticed it going up to 10 PSI! that was when we got a vaporstat, and a good low pressure gauge. they are really so useless for our low pressure steam applications, that i don't see why they bother to supply them!

it is true that some times, the old coal fired systems would get above 1.5 PSI, but not on a constant basis. the vacuum systems as we know, could go sub-atmospheric.--nbc