Replacement Radiators

We have about 8 of these in the house. There were a few others disconnected that we later found cracked these were in the kitchen which froze at some point in the past.

Well, the plumber is in the house as we speak checking the other 8 and he is having a dickens of a time holding air pressure. Not giving up hope, but trying to be prepared for the worse.

Where do you get authentic replacements?

If we repalce with new anyone have a good place to start to look?

Tags: radiator

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Permalink Reply by Randall Marder on February 11, 2012 at 8:49pm

Understand your concerns. As a GC it may be several reason why the contractor may not have notice the radiators.

a. did he know or ask about the history of the house in his evaluation

b. was the bid documents thorough, did the documentation mention that the radiators should be checked.

I do not support GC who take on old house projects with no real old house experience. I seen to many historical homes original architectural intent damaged by ignorance.

I feel for the homeowner.

Yours

Randall Marder

www.rmdesignconst.com

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Permalink Reply by Bill Hendrickson on February 13, 2012 at 12:35am

The whole project has been a bottom up affair. We bought the house "as-is" and the inheritors had no current knowledge of the condition. The house had been vacant for many years with no maintenance at all.

The house did not have a working boiler nor a way to really test the plumbing as some of the system was disconnected, obviously damaged, or in an unknown condition. We just said replace it all! So once the plumbing was changed out we moved to the next step of testing the radiators. Granted I pushed for this a bit earlier, but in the end it would not have changed the outcome.

Anyway, we have access locally to similar age radiators, and are going through the thought process as to the way to proceed. Replace with old or something newer. We are leaning to the vintage ones, to keep the look.

Repairing just does not seem practical to me, as failure is still very high. So again, going with know working units is the way to go.

Now, removing the old ones from the second floor and installing the newer ones...now that will be a job.

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Permalink Reply by Franz on February 13, 2012 at 1:22am

Bill, my thinking is a little different from yours, quite probably due to experience.

Regardless of what you do, other than total replacement with new CI radiators the system, in your case the radiators only based on your prior statement of a new boiler and all new PEX, needs to be flushed, preferably cleaned using an acid treatment. This will self pay off downline in increased radiator efficiency, and definitely lower boiler repair costs.

Flushing is not a dificult process at your stage of the game. It's as simple as setting a 250 polytote in the yard, connecting up a cheap pump such as is sold by Harbor Freight, and 2 garden hoses to connect to the individual radiators.

The only drawback to flushing/cleaning at this point is you may open up leaks in the process. Those leaks will show up downline anyhow, so it's better in my opinion to find them now. You're already replacing radiators so finding a leak now gives you the least expensive replacement of that unit, and no damage to the house from a future leak.

I'll also tell you from experience if you don't flush/clean you had better have at least 1 trap on the return to keep crud out of your new boiler and circulator.

Honestly I'm a little concerned the "Best guy in town" didn't recommend cleaning the radiators as part of the job.

As to removing units from the second floor, an appliance cart with an extra ratchet strap works very well. If you don't want to do the work yourself check the wanted section of Craigslist for people who want scrap metal. Just make sure to be there for the removal, take their picture and write down the license plate number. Honest scrappers won't mind showing you picture ID.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Hendrickson on February 18, 2012 at 2:53am

I will talk to the plumber about flushing the radiators that will be used. I think they will be picking them up tomorrow.

Yes, we did have the scappers come out and help remove the cracked radiators. The wife worked a deal to split the value, but after they lugged those heavy babies down the stairs and all without nicking the walls once, she ended up just letting the scappers just have the whole lot.

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Permalink Reply by Randall Marder on February 18, 2012 at 10:42am

I want to thank everyone for sharing great information about Radiators. I been in this field professionally for 40 years. Seen all kinds of old house discoveries. I never can learn enough. No mater how thorough I am (and I am) this info will makes me a better pro.

Yours

Randall

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Permalink Reply by Bill Hendrickson on February 19, 2012 at 2:32am

Update before Installing:

Well we have 9 radiators. We were very lucky that our local appliance dealer had these in his store. Actually, his store is an old hotel and the 2nd floor is all the old rooms and such. Anyway, we needed 9 of various sizes and got them for free. They were pulled from a working system, so leaking should not be a problem.

This coming week, we will be flushing them out, pressure testing, and cleaning them up. There is a little rust on the wall side of each radiator. We may even paint them. The ones we pulled from the house were painted silver, and looked great. These units have not been painted.

Earlier, I mentioned that we have a new boiler, but actually, it should have been we are installing a new boiler. That is why the radiators were not tested. The plumber just had not gotten that far. All that was done was replace the old pipes with pex tubing.

So, we are moving along.

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Permalink Reply by Franz on February 20, 2012 at 12:36am

Have the good radiators already in the house been flushed?

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Permalink Reply by Bill Hendrickson on February 20, 2012 at 6:35am

Unfortunately, we ended up having to replace them all. Whoever lived in the house, or used the system last, never drained the system and consequently they froze at some point. We know it was not lived in the last several years, and we are at 6000 ft and get some pretty cold weather. We had water damage in the kitchen and upstairs bath, that was obviously done by burst pipes. There was little evidence elsewhere where there was only heating plumbing. The heating pipes were OK and we will be using those on the second floor.

I am headed back to NM from the Middle East where I work so will be overlooking the next steps for getting the heating installed.