how to add a steam rad.

jonny88

hi,hope you can help.on the second floor i have a steam radiator .i am not allowed to open the floor.all that is visible is an 1.25 valve coming of a nipple and into the rad.my ? is can i remove the valve and put on a tee to pipe in another rad.i know dan says never to bullhead a tee.any suggestions would be appreciated

Hap_Hazzard

Why a tee won't work.

In a one-pipe system, the water has to flow back through the same pipe the steam enters through. That means the pipes and radiators have to be pitched towards the source. You can't pitch one side of a tee upwards without pitching the other side down.



The good news is that you may not need to add a radiator. You might be able to make it heat up faster, and remain hot through more of the heating cycle, if you install a faster vent. By allowing the air to escape faster, it will fill with steam and start giving off heat sooner.



If the radiator is undersize for the room it's in you might have to get a larger radiator. We can help yo figure out if it's big enough if you can send us a picture of the radiator tell us how tall it is, and give us the dimensions of the area it has to heat.

gerry gill

also,

the pipe size is probably to small for two radiators..

Hap_Hazzard

I was thinking that too.

Increasing the EDR won't do any good if it isn't the limiting factor. If he ends up condensing the same amount of steam he'll get the same amount of heat no matter how many radiators or how big they are.



Chances are whoever sized the radiator knew what they were doing, but whoever last replaced the air vent? Maybe not. Too many unknowns to say what the right solution is, but we can pretty much rule one out right away. ;-)

jonny88

add a rad?

thanks for your help.the reason for adding the radiator is that the new rad will be in the new closet and existing rad will be moved to other side of wall for a different radiator,the rad is original and works wonderful.i dont want to be the knucklehead who screws it up but my gut is saying not to do it.

crash2009

Johnny

 you need to know how many EDR's are connected to that 1.25" pipe right now.  Do you have Dan's book (tlaosh)?  Look on page 89, 1.25 riser will only handle 98 EDR.  1.25" runout will only handle 55 EDR.  You should also check the main to see if it can handle what you want to add.  If you check all that other stuff and still want to add a rad, this is one way to do it. 

jonny88

thanks crash

the riser diagram you gave is very helpful thanks.sorry but i dont know how to draw up what i am trying to say,in reference to your diagram i would have to put a rad on each side of the riser,all i have right now is the valve,so i would be taking of the valve and i guess bullheading the tee to go on each side of the new wall,the new wall is bang in the centre of existing rad.thanks again for your help

crash2009

The first rad

 doesn't have to be on the left.

Jamie Hall

If the riser

will handle both radiators, there is no harm to connecting two radiators to it with a T.  The problem with bull headed Ts is when you have two streams coming in on the cross bar -- one from each side -- and trying to take the flow out of the leg.  In this situation you would either be going in from the leg and out both sides of the cross bar, or in one cross bar and out the other and the leg.  No problem.



You do want to be absolutely certain, though, that everything can drain.  With some ingenuity this can probably be done.



What bothers me is... is this valve a right angle valve?  Maybe I'm missing something, but I sort of have the impression that you have a nipple coming up through the floor, into the valve, and the valve turns the flow at right angles and connects directly to the radiator.



The problem is that if this is so, the connection to the radiator is probably a union, not a nipple, and half the union is solidly attached to the radiator as a radiator spud.  And I don't see any clever arrangement of fittings to get around that.  You can't just disconnect the radiator and valve and put a T in there!  More detail or description on that?

Charlie from wmass

need more fittings to make it work

If you have the edr capacity on the riser you can turn the tee to a right angle to the wall with street 90's  pointing away from each other and 45's or street 45's to bring the sides inline with the radiator. The closet radiator I am assuming would be smaller so 1" may be enough to supply it. The radiators would then need to be straight pattern gate radiator valves.

jonny88

mr hall

you explained my exact situation.i have a right angled valve going directly into the rad,can i take it of and put on my tee????????