Radiator Valve Replacement

JohnEinNJ

A plumber recently replaced the inlet valve on a radiator in my 80 year old house, and the feet don't quite reach the floor - they "float" about 1/8 inch above it. Would the bending stress on the pipe coming out of the floor be a problem? He's suggesting shimming the feet, I think he should fix it.

Paul48

Is

it a 1-pipe system or 2-pipe?

JohnEinNJ

It's a one-pipe system

There is just one pipe coming out of the floor, through the valve, and into the radiator.

Rod

Radiator Valves

Hi- i would say the answer to your question is It depends!  Did he replace the pipe below the radiator valve? If so then he needs to replace the new pipe with one of proper length.



 If not, then the problem is that the new valve is "taller" than the old valve and therefore the old pipe would need to be replaced to put the radiator's "feet" on the floor. This can be a problem at times as a lot of the companies that originally made these valves (80 years ago)  have long gone out of business so the chance of finding a similar length valve is slim.  Depending on how much access there is the piping from below the floor this may be easier said than done to replace the pipe and in any case would be an extra cost to you as the plumber was only to replace the valve.



Since a one pipe radiator should have shims under the feet at the opposite end from the intake pipe already ( to help drain the condensate (water),  I think that shims under both sets of feet would be reasonable and would look okay. I've made really nice shims out of oak for use on wood floors and out of black plastic.

- Rod

JohnEinNJ

Thanks, Rod!

Thanks, Rod, for the careful comments. Shimming the legs up will likely put a little bending stress on the valve, but I guess that stress would be so small it would be very unlikely to damage the fittings at all?

JohnEinNJ

Thanks, Rod!

Thanks, Rod, for the careful comments. Shimming the legs up will likely put a little bending stress on the valve, but I guess that stress would be so small it would be very unlikely to damage the fittings at all?

Rod

Radiator Valve Replacement

You should be okay. All one pipe radiators should have a very slight slope towards the intake pipe so as to "encourage" the condensate (water) to leave the radiator. You want to check this with a carpenter's bubble level as in older houses, the floors may settled. I had one radiator which looked like it had obvious positive slope but in fact had negative slope as the floor had settled that much. Ended up jacking up and re leveling the whole floor!

- Rod