Old house heating: Steam radiators or forced air?

If the wife thinks the radiators are ugly then this one is a lost cause.

You should keep the steam but you will hear about it every time a pipe bangs or there is an issue with the boiler………….for EVER.

Solve for wife crabbing about rads:

Never used them but they are in NYC. https://stanleyradiatorenclosures.com/

You really, really, REALLY do NOT want to go to forced air for heat. At best, it's inferior to steam, at worst it really sucks.

Speaking as someone who went out specifically looking for a house with cast iron radiators because I like them, I'd say keep the steam and get rid of the wife.

😉

As Brother Jamie has said you should keep your steam heat because it will cost you a great deal of money to install and the payback period would be very very long and the house will not be as warm during the winter months and modern furnaces do not last as long as steam boilers.

It would help if you could upload pictures of your boiler and radiators.

What do you mean in reference to dead zones? Could the radiator valves in these areas be completely closed?

In regard to the banging you are experiencing the header pipes and or the radiators are not pitched back to the boiler to let the condensate drain back to the boiler. The cold water that has collected in the sagging pipes instantly reacts to the steam rising from the boiler and contacting the cold water remaining in the pipe which causes the banging.

The quickest thing to do is use a good bubble level to check the header pipes in the basement as they may have sagged over time and also check each radiator for level as the radiators need to be shimmed on the end to drain condensate back to the riser or header pipe to prevent banging.

YOU are in need of a steam licensed plumber to take care of your boiler with the needed repairs and bring it up to code and correctly pitch your steam piping and radiators and stop her from complaining.

You can buy beautiful radiator covers to eliminate the wifes UGGHHHH radiator issues and save a great deal of money as furnace ducting installations take up a great deal of space in a basement and cost a great deal of money.

These contractors that told you old houses are not built for central heat did you no favors as your steam boiler is your central heating source.

My wife's first home was a 2 story Montgomery Ward kit home that came to the local rail yard in box cars with everything down to the last nail, pipe, faucet and the hand fed coal steam boiler and the steam heating system was a single pipe steam boiler.

Whoever told you that you would not be happy with forced air heating is right as there is no radiant heat being shed from a properly shimmed radiator that is draining condensate back to the header pipe or pipes sloped to drain back to the boiler.

Growing up I lived in 2 houses with forced air and I hated it because I was always cold and the dust bunnies were rampant. The apartment over my fathers grocery store had coal fired steam heat that was converted to gas and the heat was slow and even and we had warm floors as well.

Your steam boiler needs some Tender Loving Care and a steam licensed plumber to take care if it and eliminate the wifes issues with the steam heating.

Removing those radiators will only make a furnace installer richer for the scrap money and you will lose the source of radiant heat in your home.

Have your wife lay several blankets on one of the radiators after the steam plumber provides the boiler the TLC it needs and shims the pipe and radiators and have her sit on the warm radiator for a while and then ask here how she likes the heat. If she still complains about the floors not being warm there is no hope for her.

this house is HW. Yes I have heat pumps for the shoulder seasons but still use the HW.
same with steam,

you can’t warm winter cloths with scorched air heat!

Cast Iron Steam Radiators are a charm in an older home, such as mine, built circa 1760. Steam will serve you well if properly installed and serviced. However, you will need a steam pro - likely from this site - to get the system in order.

I suspect the relationship may turn out to be a tug-of-war on not just the heating system, but on other choices during renovation process.

All the best.

RTW

my gloves are still sitting in front of the register. force air does a great job of drying out clothing if it is cold enough that is is running. the problem is it is usually too warm for heat and too cold for ac when my shoes get wet. eve the cold dry moving air of the ac does a decent job of drying things.

Steam and HW are only a fraction of the systems installed. Hot air is the king in most of the country whether we like it or not.

Nothing wrong with hot air if it done right unfortunately it seldom is. Hot air will be unsatisfactory in some buildings like masonary construction. Low ceilings with overhead supplies are a problem occupants can feel air movement. And overhead heat supply is never good.

Most jobs have undersized ductwork that can't be balanced

In michigan even in old houses steam or hot water aren't common, there is some but most were gravity warm air.

Jamie, it’s not the ones that squeak. Probably 95%+ of Americans don’t have steam. This is a pleasant and knowledgeable echo chamber, but still an echo chamber! Should we try to understand why Americans have abandoned steam? Or just call them names?

I do not call them names. Indeed, much of my "day" job has to do with helping them. All of them. The ones with post WWII houses with forced hot air. The ones with brownstones or triple deckers with steam or hot water (when it works at all). The ones with more money than they know what to do with with multi-zoned heat pumps. If there is one thing I've learned — I hope — it is that one size most assuredly does not fit all.

It seems to me the original post needs to pick his tie breaker, whether it be cost, looks, comfort, future plans, maintenance cost, etc. At this point there doesn't appear to be a wrong solution in the runnings. Maybe someone could assemble the likely pros and cons into a list to consolidate things