Bleed Valves

Brunton

I'm converting our house from baseboard hot water to cast iron radiators. The only bleed valves I can find are the ones that Lowes and Home Depot usually carry, but these are a little short for some of the old refurbished radiators I'm using, and I can't get them tight enough not to leak slightly at the base.

Two questions - what is the absolutely best pipe dope out there, and are any of the older fancy bleed valves still available anywhere?

Brunton

Radiator Bleed Valves

I'm converting our house from baseboard hot water to cast iron radiators. The only bleed valves I can find are the ones that Lowes and Home Depot usually carry, but these are a little short for some of the old refurbished radiators I'm using, and I can't get them tight enough not to leak slightly at the base.

Two questions - what is the absolutely best pipe dope out there, and are any of the older fancy bleed valves still available anywhere?

Thanks much!

Mark B.

Steamhead

Try

a short 1/8" brass nipple and a coupling. Screw the bleeder into the coupling, it should work OK. Any good dope should work with these items.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

I've searched and searched and searched for a source of bleed valves other than that "coin-key". ZERO success.

bob young

lamp-wick

try a hoffman "500 " or a gorton self bleeder . plenty of meat. use teflon or use quick-wick spool lampwick with schmear. garanteed not to leak. use wick on all water related threads & no need to do it twice !

Brunton

Thanks, and another question

Thanks for the help on the leaking bleed valve. I got it fixed by chasing the threads with a tap and then putting in a new valve (coin-key). If the leak reoccurs I'll go with the short nipple and coupling.

Another question - One of the new valve spuds (3/4") bottoms out in the female adapter (a new adapter) and still leaks a little bit. I used Blue Block on the threads. I've noticed this was close on a couple of other radiators, but I did get seals. According to the NPT specs, the male shouldn't bottom out in the female, at least on new parts. How do I deal with this? Lampwick with the dope, or teflon tape with the dope (and how do I do that? tape / lampwick then dope?)? Sorry for the very basic questions - I'm not a professional plumber.

Thanks again for the help!

Mark B.