Unscrewing old air vents?

johnw

I'm ordering new air vents for my steam radiators. The old vents seem to be stuck. Is there and easy way to unscrew them or should I just get a pair of pliers and rip away?

Matt Undy

Very carefully

or you can shear them off.

I'm jsut a homeowner that has done soem metalworking plumbing and auto mechanics.

I believe you should be able to do it by hand by griping the body of the valve. Whateve you do be very careful that you are puting rotation on the threaded proation and not pushing perpandicular to the radiator. There was a segment on Ask This Old House last season on how to change these. If you push sideways on the valve the threaded portion may just shear off in the radiator. Make sure you use teflon tape on the threads when you put the new one in. (dope can contaminate the boiler and cuse it to foam, correct?)

Do these ever have wrench flats on the nipple or are they all meant to be screwed in by hand using the body as leverage? Does it help to do it on a hot radiator with the boiler just turned off since the fit of the threads gets looser when it is hot?

I answered the simple tings I know at the top and gave a few more quesitons for those that have been doing this for decades to answer.

Matt