Using a hot-water radiator for one-pipe steam

mattmich

Learned Friends:

A dozen years ago, I removed a hugely oversized radiator from an old sun porch — ift that's what you call a room on the North side of the house, with windows on three sides. Maybe it was a room to sleep in in the summer. Anyway, it's my office now, insulated and with good Andersen windows.

Anyway, the old rad was about 300 lbs and I was not interested in reusing it. It also had an EDR of 50, for a room 8 x 14 feet.

On FB Marketplace, I found this old thing for an attractive price, so I bought it. Its ERD is about 20 square feet, which is plenty. Looked lighter than its 160 lbs but I got it home.

The seller is a nice guy but when he verified the inner diameter of the condensate fitting for me at 1-1/4", he must have gotten confused. It's one inch ID, and my new Legend radiator angle valve is 1-1/4.

I'm pretty sure none of the old iron fittings will move with household-type motivation.

My guess is that I'll have to take out the brass one-incher and replace it with some kind of adaptor piece. Worst calse, I'll have to find a way to get the steel reducer out and replace it. That will be work, and likely require a blow torch to heat everything up.

Before I go to all that trouble, does anyone have a better idea? A steel adapter could be made to fit easily enough. Obviously, there'd be condensate trapped, but I don't think that'll be a big problem.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
cheers -matt

Jamie Hall

Well,,. if you don't have the inlet valve which was matched to that spud that's in there, you have to replace the spud anyway and replace it with the spud which came with your new valve.

Sometimes spuds come out easily. Some times (like most of the time) not so much.

What happened to the inlet valve which wat mated to the radiator?

ethicalpaul

I'm not sure what you are asking here, but 1" is big enough for this radiator.

It doesn't hurt to try to remove the iron reducer if what you are saying is that your existing feed line is 1-1/4"

And if you can get a 1" valve to attach to it, it sure can't hurt to try to mate it to the existing 1" brass "spud" that is in the radiator. As Jamie said, it may not mate, but I think he's overstating to say "it won't mate"

mattmich

Rather than use a lot of words, let me simply ask:

Okay to connect like this?

ethicalpaul

People might say that the water trapped by the bushing will be a problem, but I don't think it will. I think it will work but if it were mine I'd try like heck to get that bushing out just based on principle

Jamie Hall

Agreed. Kind of a kludge, but it will work OK.

guzzinerd

A carefully used sawzall does the trick for me when removing old fittings like that.

EBEBRATT-Ed

1" is good for an EDR of 25 so at 20 your not pushing it. Could you use a 1" valve and reduce the riser to go into the valve? A reducer on a riser is less of a problem.

But. if you lay the rad down and put a 2-footer on it with a cheater it will give up. If not Sawzall it out.

The way you have it is probably fine.

Now that I changed my mind 3 times I am out LOL

mattmich

I was hoping for someone to say, a mismatch like this is common, here's what you buy.

As near as I can tell, there is no angle valve that goes from a 1-1/4 riser to a 1-inch spud. Which I would have thought would be common. And of course I could neck down the riser, but then I'm a few inches higher than I want to be, so that's not an attractive option. I had the wall open a dozen years ago, but I wisely left the pipes and the asbestos insulation beaucoup the heck alone.

I'm going to get out the 3-foot pipe wrench and see if I can get the bushing out, but I draw the line at Sawzall/blowtorch. Just not that big a deal for part-time duty. I will swap out the nipple for a close nipple to minimize the ugly. The real attraction is if I can get ALL the bushings out i won't have to repaint the silly thing. As it sits, I'll have to use the ugly side forward, so that means painting and maybe a trip to the sandblaster.

BTW this is loooong riser, 10 ft along the basement ceiling + ten feet to the second floor, so it has 12 sq ft of EDR all its own. Insulated, of course. I will only turn it on when I really need it; that room hasn't had a radiator in years and it hasn't been a problem.

ethicalpaul

so it has 12 sq ft of EDR all its own. Insulated, of course.

Then it doesn't have 12 sq ft of EDR, except for a couple minutes when starting from cold

As near as I can tell, there is no angle valve that goes from a 1-1/4 riser to a 1-inch spud. 

But you don't need this. Your radiator I believe has a 1-1/2" port into which you could easily install a 1-1/2 to 1-1/4 bushing. Everyone else's radiator does also so no one really needs a 1-1/4 riser to a 1" spud.

leonz

Rent a 4 or 5 foot pipe wrench and 4 pound hammer or buy a 5 foot length of pipe to use on the pipe wrench to get the bushing out of there. If you have a wagner paint melting gun use it for 10 minutes on the cast iron around the bushing and have someone lean against the radiator to hold it in place or better yet and safer lay it on a 6 by 6 or 8 by 8 to use the floor as a back stop to remove the bushing if you do not feel up to using a sawzall to cut it in two or three places.