First post

Anthony01

First post, but I've been reading a lot of others to get more familiar. I have mostly all regular vertical cast iron radiators in my house, built 1925. I do have a baseboard rad in my bathroom and this one has been trouble, it regular squirts water out of the air vent. Not too too much but by no means not a little either. I do have an extra vertical radiator that is not being used that is small enough to fit nicely in the bathroom. Can I just disconnect the baseboard and put a shut off valve on and then connect the vertical radiator? I'm handy, but definitely not a plumber.

Jamie Hall

A few possibilities...

First off, what sort of vent is on that baseboard?  Some are much better than others at avoiding squirting.



Second, water hanging around in a baseboard isn't that unusual; there is no headroom in there for the condensate to stay out of the way of the steam.  Slower venting may help a lot.



Third, if the baseboard doesn't clang or hammer but heats OK, it is likely to be pitched right -- which eliminates one potential headache.



And last.  Yes, you could substitute that vertical column radiator.  However, it isn't quite as straightforward as it looks, because the steam shutoff valves (such as the one which I presume is on the baseboard) are matched to the spud which is screwed into the radiator -- and are quite different from conventional plumbing shutoff valves, which will cause trouble.  So the question there is, is there a valve still attached to that column radiator?  If so, use it -- it's matched to the radiator.  If not, you will need to either use the one for the baseboard which is there or get a new valve.  Either way, you will have to get the spud out of the old radiator.