How important are Vent-Rite #1 tongues?

jefftk3

While inspecting, swapping, fiddling with some vents on my radiators and in turn re-installing some ventrite #1 vents, I found it impossible to prevent the metal tongue from snagging and rotating out of place while screwing them back in.

How important are these tongues? I think I recall from the We Got Steam book the stated purpose was to encourage any condensation to go past and not collect in the threads of the radiator. Yet, some other vent styles don't have tongues….

I did find some other threads discussing this (linked below). One suggesting that corrosion in the radiator threads makes it easy to catch the tongue - which certainly sounds like what is happening.

I saw mention somewhere recently (maybe a youtube video I was watching) of using a thread cutter / tap to clean out the threads on the radiator when reinstalling vents, which sounds like a reasonable idea. Any reason not to try that?

I have two ventrites installed now with the tongues removed, but may go back and try to bend the tongue differently and clean the threads if its worthwhile.

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1479823#Comment_1479823

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1716551#Comment_1716551

mattmia2

it helps pull the condensate out of the vent itself too, it is something for it to stick to and drip off of, it could tend to just stick to all the sides of the nipple on the vent and sit there instead of dripping down without the tongue. cleaning up the threads in the radiator with a 1/8" npt tap is a great idea but don't screw it in too far or you could make the threads too big for the valve to fit tight. the tap and the threads are both tapered so the further you drive the tap in the bigger the hole gets. you could also use a drill bit smaller than the minor diameter of the threads turned with your fingers to knock some of the bigger chunks out of the hole.

Steamhead

I just bend them up slightly so they don't catch. Works fine.