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Found a stash in a radiator

While going around the building replacing trap innards I found a little surprise.  Someone was using one of the little vents to make regular deposits o:) :







Bryant 245-8 2-pipe steam in a 1930s 6-unit 1-story apt building in the NM mountains.  26 radiators heating up 3800sqf.
WaherkcoppMad Dog_2EdTheHeaterManErin Holohan HaskellRobomooPC7060GrallertCtmgp7609JakeCK

Comments

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 15,452
    And no smell of melted plastic????LOL
  • guzzinerd
    guzzinerd Member Posts: 232
    edited February 2023
    They've been there since 93" so probably not.  

    The lack of maintenance on this place is shameful... Amazing there was still heat.
    Bryant 245-8 2-pipe steam in a 1930s 6-unit 1-story apt building in the NM mountains.  26 radiators heating up 3800sqf.
    Mad Dog_2
  • Larry Weingarten
    Larry Weingarten Member Posts: 3,272
    Child! Where have all of your toys gone!!?? o:)

    Yours, Larry
    guzzinerdMad Dog_2
  • Dan_NJ
    Dan_NJ Member Posts: 247
    Vindictive sibling no doubt :)
    guzzinerdMad Dog_2mattmia2
  • guzzinerd
    guzzinerd Member Posts: 232
    Banned?
    Bryant 245-8 2-pipe steam in a 1930s 6-unit 1-story apt building in the NM mountains.  26 radiators heating up 3800sqf.
    mattmia2
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,018
    Better there than in the toilet😳
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    Mad Dog_2SuperTech
  • Alan (California Radiant) Forbes
    Alan (California Radiant) Forbes Member Posts: 3,976
    edited February 2023
    Someone thinks steam heating is child's play.
    8.33 lbs./gal. x 60 min./hr. x 20°ΔT = 10,000 BTU's/hour

    Two btu per sq ft for degree difference for a slab
    Mad Dog_2guzzinerdNutjob
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 6,831
    Very clever puns...I remember doing stuff like that...don't know why..But my older sister became concerned when her Barbie dolls and Raggedy Ann doll went M.I.A.
    Apparently, I "disappeared" em!  Years later when disassembling the Pool Table to make room for Older Brother Bart's Man Cave bedroom, my father Bart II  called everyone down to show us something.   The big heavy bases of the pool 🎱 table were hollowed out and I had deposited the dolls down inside them after I crawled underneath and found this hidden black hole.  I also lost 4 G.I. Joe's and 1 Action Jackson (remember him) and 1 Johnny West figure on my roof in  Howard Beach Queens.  They all had homemade parachutes that I had made and threw up there!  Finding the gutters stopped up, he found them all.  It was like Christmas 🎄 all over again.  My M.I.A.s dolls were back in my hands. Me and my older Brother Bart who should have known better, used to melt crayons 🖍 on the radiators...we loved the smell!!   Ha ha.  Great memories that brought back. Thanks.   Mad Dog 🐕 

    reggiguzzinerdNutjob
  • reggi
    reggi Member Posts: 510
    @Mad Dog_2  GERONIMO ! I remember  those homemade parachutes .. I don't remember them working to well... unless you made them big ! Thanks.. for the trip down memory lane 
    One way to get familiar something you know nothing about is to ask a really smart person a really stupid question
    guzzinerd
  • EdTheHeaterMan
    EdTheHeaterMan Member Posts: 7,713
    All those great toys, reminds me of this story. https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1702214#Comment_1702214
    Edward F Young. Retired HVAC ContractorSpecialized in Residential Oil Burner and Hydronics
  • GroundUp
    GroundUp Member Posts: 1,888
    When I was an apprentice, we did a remodel of a high school building and replaced all of the IDU/ fan coil/ CUH units in the building. My job as the low man was mostly demo, which also included scrapping and separating the ferrous from non-ferrous which was then divided amongst the crew (the good old days before the boss took it all), so I was pretty intimate with every unit that was removed. Never in my life have I seen so many pencils. By the time it was over, I had almost a whole 55 gallon trash can full of pencils along with several 5 gallon buckets of gum and wrappers.
    guzzinerdCLambMarjPinard
  • psb75
    psb75 Member Posts: 828
    You're lucky it wasn't...Big Bird.
    NutjobMarjPinard
  • Stet
    Stet Member Posts: 37
    One of Dan's stories tells a good tale of what wonderful things kids do. They found a wall convector that was not heating. After carving through many layers of paint to get the screws off, they found a deck of cards strewn all over the fins. It seems one of the siblings decided to play ATM.
    guzzinerdEdTheHeaterMan
  • ChicagoCooperator
    ChicagoCooperator Member Posts: 354
    I wonder if there is any value in those collectable toys?

    Last week, one of my friends told a story about a co-worker calling in, their cat had dropped a remote control down the toilet...
    CLambguzzinerdMarjPinard
  • FrankB101
    FrankB101 Member Posts: 16
    I wonder if that is where all of my lost socks have gone. Please check all radiators for me.
    guzzinerdEdTheHeaterManMarjPinard
  • MaxMercy
    MaxMercy Member Posts: 507
    I once ran across an envelope under a dresser with at least $2K in it. I was going to hand it over to the customer and suggest a better hiding place, but decided to just leave it where I found it and not mention it at all.
    MarjPinard
  • guzzinerd
    guzzinerd Member Posts: 232
    MaxMercy said:
    I once ran across an envelope under a dresser with at least $2K in it. I was going to hand it over to the customer and suggest a better hiding place, but decided to just leave it where I found it and not mention it at all.
    My Cuban mother law is like that.  She's in apt1 and cash is stashed everywhere, no bank accounts.
    Bryant 245-8 2-pipe steam in a 1930s 6-unit 1-story apt building in the NM mountains.  26 radiators heating up 3800sqf.
    MaxMercyMarjPinard
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 6,831
    I could ✍ pen a small book on things I've retrieved from the 🚻 Loo....some too saucy to mention here.   Taken one too many toilets out on the front lawn for exploratory surgery.  Mad Dog. 
    guzzinerd
  • BobC
    BobC Member Posts: 5,476
    Many decades ago I had just gotten home from my Tour in Korea and was living with my mother and brother. I came home from wor, changed clothes and took a leak, when I flushed to toilet almost over flowed. I tried the plunger but nop dice so I tried using a wire fuish tape but it wouldn't go through the trap. My brother in law lived just over the bridge so I called for help, he had 3 kids so he brought a wax seal with him just in case, he was well versed in what gat mistakenly end up in a toilet..

    We tried a couple of things to unclog it but ended up pulling it off the floor. I brought it out on the back lawn and could tell something was lodged it it. Using a hose i finally got it to go back up and discovered it was broken aftershave bottle.

    Turns out my brother was getting ready for a date and dropped the aftershave that hit the sink and bounced into the toilet. He fished out a couple of broken pieces and didn't realize there was one large piece left which I got to fight with.
    Smith G8-3 with EZ Gas @ 90,000 BTU, Single pipe steam
    Vaporstat with a 12oz cut-out and 4oz cut-in
    3PSI gauge
    guzzinerdreggi
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    Plumber told the story of a medical building that needed the women's WC's to be augared regularly.

    He would find an ink pen caught crosswise in the trap.

    He noticed all the nurses carried a pen in the pocket of their top scrubs.
    When they leaned to flush the pen would fall out into the WC, of course it was flushed down.

    I don't know how he cured the problem, maybe never, paid well for an easy job.

    IIWM today, I would carry the wet pen to the nurse station and lay it on the counter.

    It would turn into a biohazard situation and might have solved the loose pen problem.
    CLambguzzinerdMarjPinard
  • unclejohn
    unclejohn Member Posts: 1,833
    Had a no heat call at a day care center on a 90+ furnace. Would not make the pressure switch. Pulled the air intake off and at least 20 yellow tennis balls rolled out. The lady said she wondered where they all went. 
    guzzinerdCLambMarjPinard
  • SteamingatMohawk
    SteamingatMohawk Member Posts: 997
    My two oldest sons are 18 months apart. When the older one had to use the toilet, he didn't flush it. My wife didn't hear it flush and told him to flush it. He said, "But Mom" more than once. She said, "FLUSH IT!" He did then started crying. She asked him why he was crying. He said, "I just flushed a diaper down the toilet."

    That was before paper diapers! Needless to say, my wife flushed the toilet a few times, and never repeated the escapade!
    guzzinerdMarjPinard
  • Treebeard
    Treebeard Member, Email Confirmation Posts: 17
    edited March 2023

    We had a call to find out why a retrofit hot air system was not working after the ducts were cleaned. As I drove the remote controlled camera through the ducts I was glad that it had tracks instead of wheels because of all the plastic toys in the way. The registers just dropped into the floor and apparently some little one had discovered that they were easy to lift out of the way so toys could adventure below the floors.

    Oh, why didn't the system work? Because a riser had been disconnected inside of a brick chase.

    I still wonder how the installer had made the connection in the first place. They had no space to get tools in the chase so I guess it was just jammed together. I guess the cleaner had pushed the joint apart

  • Hap_Hazzard
    Hap_Hazzard Member Posts: 2,846

    Someone brought a TV set into the shop where I used to work back in the 70s. They said it didn't work. I pushed the reset button and plugged it in, and it tripped the circuit breaker on my bench outlet box before I even turned it on. So I took the back off and looked at the chassis and saw that some coins had been dropped through the venting slots in the back of the set and shorted out some of the power supply terminals. After removing all the coins I tested the set, but, unfortunately, they had managed to fry some of the circuitry before they dropped the coin that killed the power. So I called the customer and asked them if they had kids. They said they did, so I told them they must have been trying to invent pay-TV.

    Just another DIYer | King of Prussia, PA
    1983(?) Peerless G-561-W-S | 3" drop header, CG400-1090, VXT-24
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 9,572

    Certianly woudln't have been the first person to put some s cleats on the end of a duct and shove and hope for the best.