New to an old home... Steam radiator help

ankman81

Hello all,

We moved to an older home that has steam radiators with a single pipe system. One of the radiators in the bathroom blows out steam at the part in the attached picture. There is no other vent. I tried to screw this tighter, but it still blew out steam. There is no control valve at the inlet to turn this radiator off completely
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Appreciate your help in advance!

mattmia2

Wrong type of valve. You want a steam radiator vent, that is an automatic air vent for a hot water system although i think it says steam in some catalogs but it is really a hot water vent. Get a straight steam vent for it, probably a rather slow one because that fin tube is less likely to have an issue on steam if the vent is slow. the right kind of vent looks like a little can with threads on the bottom.

You can replace it with a plug from the hardware store until you can get the right vent.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Are you sure your system is steam? That is a hot water air vent with fin tube baseboard with copper pipe going to it. Looks more like a hot water job than a steam job from what that picture shows.

ankman81

Hi, thanks for your help. The whole house is a steam set up -- all the other radiators in the house are the regular cast iron type. This is the only small fin set up in a bathroom. I was able to find a vertical steam vent (maid o mist) at the local hardware store and it did the trick. Thank you!

leonz

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!