supply valves for hot water convectors

miatafrank

I am working at a fairly large 2 story house (maybe 1930s) that uses hot water convectors piped from a main feed and reverse return in the basement. I need to slightly reroute the piping to one of the 2nd floor convectors, due to a kitchen remodel. I removed the risers and piping and found that the straight pattern union valve connectors at the convector have a smaller thread/coupling nut than usual. The folks at the supply houses do not seem to have any new valves or just plain couplings that will fit this thread. I do not want to remove the spuds from the convector for fear of wrecking everything. I would think that these smaller sized connectors would have been fairly common back in the day. I can just reuse the old valves but they do not work and are frozen in the open position. Any ideas about these connectors and if there may be any replacements? Thanks.

Jamie Hall

Oops. Well, the problem is — and you are not the first to encounter it — those coupling nuts are part of the union of the matched pair of spud and valve. The spud and the valve come together, and if you replace one half of it you have to replace the other.

Sorry about that.

miatafrank

Thanks for responding Jamie. Yes, I've searched through all sorts of unions in my shop and nothing matches up. I was hoping that there was some standardized "smaller size" of union connectors that were made for convectors rather than radiators. I'll just reinstall the originals - they are brass and look to be in fine shape. They are stuck in the open position, and I am told that the convector heats up nicely. The whole system has worked well since I re-piped the main to "pump away" from the expansion tank about 15 years ago. Thanks again.