riser tube radiator??

jpf321

my friend has this in his bathroom .. what seems to be a vented tube around a riser .. the bottom is 1-1/4" in... then it becomes a 3" pipe with a vent .. the batheroom has no other radiator .. has anyone any idea what this is? i have been there for a heating cycle and it really doesn't get very hot .. maybe the Hoffman 1A on there is plugged or something .. he claims that it does get steam-hot sometimes .. thanks.



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Charlie from wmass

Its a piece of 3 inch pipe

change the vent it will get hot. edr is found by pipe chart. measure the length and multiply.

jpf321

ok thanks.

ok thanks .. since this is first floor bath, i suppose there are other rads upstairs that this rises to.. and they are all hot .. i'm not too concerned over this but it is curious to me. i'm also wondering what the other end (hidden in the ceiling) looks like. 

Charlie from wmass

are you sure this supplies other rads?

It may just be capped off in ceiling. Did you check below this to see if another pipe goes up near here? If this pipe supplied radiators above this point and they are hot it would also be hot at the same time. Also the vent would have little effect on it as they would vent the air up from those radiators.

jpf321

the basement ...

is finished in 1920s oak woodwork, which is really nice by the way .. very little chance of tracing pipes down there. thanks for the further reply, without measuring off the supplies to the rads above it, i really can't answer .. i'm curious about why they would put in a full length vertical pipe if it isn't headed upstairs when every other room has a rad... and I did think for a moment that this main branch was counterflow and that this was the vent point for it .. but i think the main is parallel flow and that the vent, if there is one, is somewhere behind the oak and will likely never be seen again.



the vent for the other main, measley as it is,  is in their attached garage .. a 1/8" thread gorton .. was not able to get to within reading distance .. on the little nipple on the top elbow of the insulated pipes. this vent is at roughly the same height AWL (9ft) as the one in the bathroom. the garage floor is at first floor floor level.