There She Blows!
I live on the ninth floor of a prewar co-op. The radiators in my apartment are HUGE(45 ribs each) AND the management is cheap with the heat, only putting it on when enough people complain. To get the heat up to my floor and get the radiators hot, it must be blasted. Anyway, two of…
I live on the ninth floor of a prewar co-op. The radiators in my apartment are HUGE(45 ribs each) AND the management is cheap with the heat, only putting it on when enough people complain. To get the heat up to my floor and get the radiators hot, it must be blasted. Anyway, two of the radiators work fine, one starts to squirt water through the valve when the heat is blasted. It doesn’t do this all the time but has a few times over the years, resulting in damage to the neighbors below. Of course, my super is useless and only tells me to buy these $100 something valves, which I would gladly do if he would give more info regarding the name and size needed! What could be the problem(and solution) of this? Adjusting the pitch, changes to better valves? Any help is appreciated, as I’ve just turned off that radiator entirely and it’s COLD in there!!
Ms. Kirsch,
I’m sorry that you’re anything less than very happy with our service. Unfortunately, what I will not allow my participation on Brownstoner to become is a means to extortion.
I could contact your building and fix your system on your terms, but at this point, I much prefer to leave you in the semi-capable hands of my competition instead.
If someone else from your building is willing to get in touch with me, I’d be happy to speak with them about options for an economical solution to the problem.
In addition to sending an email registering my concern as a customer, I also left a message for you with your office. Neither my call nor my email were returned. Not sure why you would think if a customer is unhappy with the service they received you shouldn’t take the time to respond.
The fact is the valves on the radiator are not the issue. They were not causing the leak. However they were replaced and that seems wrong. In my email to you that was the question I asked – if this is a system problem, why replace the valves?
By the way your mechanic John, was not denied access. He was in the basement and met with another owner in the building and I after he replaced the two valves. Given this is a co-op I could not authorize any further work at that time. But if it seemed necessary and the co-op agreed, we could have hired your company to do the repair.
My point here is not to “bad mouth” you or be “nasty”. I want to register my concern and disappointment at a job you did. Given that you seem to have a lot of time to post but not to return a customer’s call, i figured posting would get your attention. Guess i was right.
Your on line personality, seems to be quite a bit different than you customer service.
Ms. Kirsch, you sent me an email yesterday. I got it. It didn’t ask for a reply.
Can you please explain here why we did not have the opportunity to fix your system since you’ve taken the time to write?
Is it perhaps because we were denied access to your boiler room since Vigilante Plumbing has a service contract to maintain the boiler and system at Garfield Place? Yet, in spite of that, you called us for some reason.
Your valves were rendered inoperable by the water and crud that leaked through them and the new ones will fail in short order if you don’t follow our advice to have Vigilante fix the boiler or return piping.
I wish I could fix things that are behind locked doors but they didn’t teach that in plumbing school.
And there are any number of people who read this forum that can attest to my perseverance in solving a problem for a customer who has given me their money without charging additional fees. Nasty emails and a public bad-mouthing won’t facilitate any of that.
Master Plvmber on November 9, 2010 4:27 PM
“Steam radiators don’t require bleeding. Your system is to blame and there’s nothing you can do to any radiator(s) that can fix it.”
Wow i wish you had offered me such wise advise when your mechanics came to fix my radiator. They installed new valves charged me $364 and my radiator is still leaking. I left you a message and sent you a detailed email earlier this week and have yet to hear back from you. Guess you are too busy answering posts on Brownstoner and cashing my check to respond to an actual client.
BTW, it’s “Thar she blows.”
I agree with Joshi above. This isn’t an issue for your super, or a problem with your radiator; this is a building-wide maintenance problem, which needs to be addressed by hiring someone to review the heating system for the building.
Also, I just reread your post and noticed the part about the water squirting out. The only time I ever saw this was with a system where the pressure was pushed way too high – like 2.5 lbs or something in a 4 story building. I am not a plumber nor am I qualified to work on boilers (I used to operate them in commercial buildings), so I only told the people what I thought and advised them to call a plumber. If you have water and steam coming out of those vents, the pressure is suspect. You mention pitch, that could be a problem as well. Proper vent sizes on the upper floors could aleviate the need to “blast” it as you say.
steve
Check the vents on the sides of the radiators. The vents allow cold air out and close once the radiator is filled with steam. The key is to choose a vent large enough to void air before the system stops pushing steam.
The manufacturers of these vents are Maid o Mist, Hoffman and Groton. Maybe you can check who manufactured the vents in place on your radiators and look at the manufacturers’ websites to compare their sizing recs to what you have in place; try to get a bigger vent. I once had a room that was a bit tricky to heat and I drilled the top of the vent out; it worked.
As for the thermostatic valves mentioned by someone else, they would only be good if you had the reverse problem; overheating. There are two types – both made by Danfoss, which mount on the inlet side of the radiator or on the vent side (of a single pipe system). These are good if your space gets too hot and you would like the luxery of being able to turn it down and up at times. Again, as Master Plumber said, these are not what you need.
BTW, you can do the radiator vents yourself with NO tools. The only problem I sometimes see is that the threads may be damaged/corroded on older radiators and once the vent is removed, the new one may not thread properly (a plumber can chase the threads or drill, tap and install a collar or helicoil to correct this).
But what do I know? I am a woodworker.
Steve
http://www.thetinkerswagon.com
Steam radiators don’t require bleeding. Your system is to blame and there’s nothing you can do to any radiator(s) that can fix it.
Your super is not giving you good advice recommending thermostatic radiator valves.