Live in California and managing a property in Minnesota - has an updated hot water radiator system. I now know a hell of a lot more about managing long term thanks to this video.

Thank you so much for this video. I had a radiator that wouldn't shut off, and this helped me figure out that the air valve had been painted over, and was preventing it from venting. It was quick and inexpensive fix, and saved me a ton of time.

This is incredible! Thanks for sharing your deep knowledge. Just bought a 2-flat that needs a lot of work. About to start working on the steam radiator system and this is the most helpful video I’ve been able to find.

Funny how time flies. I remember your videos in 2011-2012.

this guy knows his radiators.

Hi :) I just discovered this video, after watching several of your other radiator videos, and there's one little section that was super helpful --exactly what I was looking for-- when you said most people put on "these cheap little Taiwan piece of sh*ts" (lol... hilarious!!). I'm one of them fools myself, because they were the only vents at my local store. I have three radiators in my apartment. The bathroom radiator has the higher quality bullet radiator that apparently works perfectly; very quiet, shuts off as radiator gets hot, and stays shut off for the most part during the heat cycle. That one was new when I moved in, so I didn't replace that one, but the other two radiators in the living room and dining room were old and spitting out water, and one vent was cracked. Well, my new ones are "cheap little Taiwan pieces of sh*t" that are noisy, whistling, sometimes rattling, opening and closing constantly, etc. A lot of time they literally sound like a standard "whistling tea kettle"! =0 I guess I could suck it up and get better quality vents, seeing as I love my apartment and don't want to move out any time soon... ;) Thanks so much for the info! :)

Thanks for taking the time to make your hydronic heating system videos! I'm really learning a lot, and I just subscribed to your channel. I'm planning on using a hydronic system(hopefully using cast iron radiators) in our new house(Craftsman bungalow).

You are a radiator master! Thanks for the info and helping me out with my "new house". Built in 1921 it has an ARCO coal boiler converted to gas

They put hot water heating systems in new buildings here in NYC but most older buildings use steam because it would cost to much to convert to hot water heat and there's not much of a difference on energy savings, I considered air conditioning but honestly I'll most likely get out of the trades field altogether.

Your videos helped me a lot, there are no qualified steam heating people in my area, so I have to learn how to work on my system

Excellent video sir. Thank you so much. I have been searching the internet for and watching other KZfaq videos and none of them helped me deal with particular questions I had. Thank you.

Thank you, this video finally showed up in my suggestions. Steam heat, a lost art, great knowledge.

Thank you for your insight. I was afraid to move to a home with a large cast iron radiator system because I had no knowledge of how to safely use them. Now I know how to handle some common problems. You have taken away most of my worries.

Thank you for your honesty and information! I am still trying to figure out if mine is water or steam, very old house 1890, takes a long time for heat to circulate, but, much cleaner than blowing heat!!!

6:00 We had radiators like this in Harlem when I was a kid. And when I was renting a room in the Bronx they had one there.

Very Nice! Thanks

Thanks , I didn't know the Difference between the to

Man, you know your stuff! Thanks for sharing.

So funny, I was watching this video couple days ago then yesterday at my rehearsal the percussionist goes "Yo my radiator is making too much noise. It has a rhythm of it's own going clank clank clank!" and I replied giving him all this information that I learned from your video about how he's most likely using cheaper tools and what to do. It was so random but hey, you taught me something. ;) Take care.

Best video I've seen on YT. This guy knows his stuff.

thank you for your info. it's good to know these things and being a woman who doesn't like to ask or really bother anybody cause everyone has their own lives, I like to be self sufficient. I really appreciate someone who helps others just because😊 Happy Thanksgiving.

Excellent video! Also, it’s good to periodically spray the cut off valve stem, right above the nut, with lubricant to prevent leaking when turned.

I love Knowledge. thanks for it

Good morning Brother of logic and common sense, very informative video. So far you've provided me in your video all i was looking for. Love your other videos too. An educated consumer is my best customer. How bout you?

Thank you. Learned a lot from this video.

You know your stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! Very informative.

Very good video, thanks for taking the time to make a video to help others. I appreciate it.

Excellent explanation! Well done sir!

Excellent video. Subscribed. Thank you fo sharing your experience!

Wow I learned a lot about steam today from your video thanks

Good video. Keep 'em coming.

good video. I just bought a house with hot water radiators and they sure bang a lot.keep up the good work! D

I L❤️VE that beautiful old radiator.

Dude you are awesome! Keep it up!

Nice vid dude. Learned what I needed! Thanks

Thank for the information. I have an old house that I am converting it back to radiators.

Wao dude you explain better than my physics teacher..you good

Very well explained video! Thanks

My old elementary school had the huge steam radiators that hissed and banged all day but man they were so warm. We had to open the windows in the winter! I used to try to get a desk close to the radiator because I'm always cold. 40 years ago.

Well explained

@Viktir666) I learned some of this by taking a six month training class I went to back in 2002 and the rest I learded by hands on experience and yes I do work in the build maintenence field for a living.

great vid. thanks.

Great video.

Great video!

thank you for the information great video please make more home improvement info vids

good vid, thx for sharing. mike

OH yes, I remember, back in "the day", we had these steam radiators that were old in an old house. pssss, bang, bang, psss, pop, pop, bang. I had to put water watching tube gauge near furnace in basement anywhere from 2x daily to every 2 days, depending on outside temp. Was very hard to see with flashlight to it. impossible otherwise, through glass. Water level no more than, I think, about 3/4 on glass. Overfill and you'll know it. Water everywhere. NOT just by furnace. But from every radiator. It was, "live and learn" cleaning it all up. lol. But, beside that, worked fine. lol.

I’ve enjoyed your videos a lot. One thing you don’t mention is a simple way to lower the temp on a steam or hot water radiator is cover it with a blanket. Never do that to an electric radiator because it could cause a fire. But for steam or hot water it does a fantastic job of keeping down the heat

I'm sure that you are right. It is not only in heating systems that quality has greatly declined. Some of the olde boilers (both steam and hot water) could last for more than 100 years but, because they were not efficient, most have been replaced. Boilers designed for oil or especially coal cannot be very efficient since the stack temperature has to be kept high to minimize chimney deposits. I have a new-fangled condensing boiler with my radiant floor heat. It will never last 100 years!

Very good info

Thank you!

I've learned a lot just now

Good video!

you are good - thanks

Very useful and great information! I wish I could give this video more than one thumbs up. Subscribe immediately! :-D

Hi, Thank you for the video. I was actually about to buy a steam rad without knowing. Question for you. How do I calculate the btu's of a rad? I want to make sure I can heat the volume of my room. Thank you

First off, excellent video. I am a coal stove nut and have just recently gotten into the coal boiler field. I currently have forced hot air in my house but am starting to collect some hot water radiators to install. Can you please do a video on how to take the sections apart so that I can shorten some of my radiators by just reducing the amount of sections? Thanks again, Glenn

'Pot-belly' valve :p

so on the valves, do i want them closed position or open when the heater turns on? thanks for sharing...this was great!

Yo, brother the cut off valves should be used for just that. I think another option to adjust the temp would be by using the hot water heater.

Dont do that because you'l have steam shooting all over the place, it will cause substantial interior damages to your walls, and it will increase your heating/gas bill dramatically. if you need to get steam into your radiators faster then just use a larger air vent, if you have self standing cast iron radiators use an angel gorton No.D air vent. If you have convector radiators then use a straight Gorton No.1 air vent

thanks guy

Best cut-off valve:MEPCO

Fuel emissions increase only if your heating system is being ran on a thermostat, in which case it wouldn't be senseless to open the window or adjusting the radiator cutoff valve, most buildings operate on heat timers that mainly work off the out door temperature not the home temperature so opening windows has no effect on emissions because commercial boilers are always substantially over sized for each application, what your describing is primary air and combustion mixture not a CO2 problem

Thanks for the video. I can tell you know your s**t. I've run into steam systems a few times in my life but because they aren't common anymore I don't know much about them. I just bought an old house that I'm refurbishing and it had steam. I'm replacing the boiler (it's really old) with a forced hot water system but was wondering about reusing the old steam radiators for water. Looks like I can but now I know that not all radiators are same so I'll have to check to see what I have.

@akwesi100 Awesome man, I was just wondering. Thanks for the response.

You explain things very well and simplify it so that even an absolute novice can understand. Would you have any ideas on why a cast iron steam radiator would not turn down or off ? I'm boiling and I've tried everything I know and I can't just open a window since snow doesn't mix with apartments ! mine does have a dial knob though all I can find is information for a not working(heating) radiator which is definatly not the problem.

Iwas in a place built in the 20s that had 2 pipe steam heat .IF YOU WET YOUR FINGER AND TOUCHED THE RADIATOR IT SIZZLED LIKE IF YOU DID IT TO AN ELECTRIC STOVE BURNER . I was in an abandoned house and they had radiators that were recessed into the wall with an intake in the bottom and a vent in the top to devert the heat away from the wall .THEY WERE SOLID CAST IRON AND SECTIONAL WITH RIGHT & LEFT HAND THREAD NIPPLES HOLDING THE SECTIONS TOGETHER .The pipe feeds went into the bottom of the units I HAVE PHOTOS OF THESE WEIRD RADIATORS ID LIKE TO SOME HOW SHARE WITH YOU.I dont have any social media .Can you give me a way to share the photos with you??

how's it going brother? I just bought a home that has cast iron heaters and I don't like the look of cast iron heaters. can I replace the cast iron heaters with baseboard heaters without modifying the heating system?

My dad used to have one of those oil operated heater system. He switched to the gas system. Ever since the switch the system has not been the same. One side of the house would have and the other side would not. When I went down to the basement to check I realized that one pipe is hot and the other pipe is half hot and half warm as you're moving away from the boiler. I was wondering what can I do or what do you think the problem is? Please advise .GREAT VIDEOS BY THE WAY!

Any chance you can tell me what temperature these single pipe steam radiators get? I’ve googled but keep getting multiple answers and I want to paint mine and need a heat threshold so I know what paint I can buy and it’s been such a headache unfortunately

The cut off valves That lasted that long were probably made over 50 years ago, the only way newer valves might last that long only if #1 people don't adjust the cutoff valves on the radiator and #2 if people install top quality valves on there radiators. The valve your talking about are no longer made, everything is imported from over seas and doesn't have the same quality, in most cases your average cutoff valve will start to leak within the first 3 to 5 years.

make a video on how to add rust preventive additives to your boiler

I am new to hot water radiator heating, but I was considering putting one small rad in our bathroom. Do the old cast iron radiators require a special boiler, or would they it be heating using the water from our hot water tank?

the MAN ain't NO JOKE......

Your experience is mainly with very large NYC apt bldgs. In other parts of the US, apt bldgs usually have hot water heat with the boiler temp controlled according to outdoor temp and each apt has a thermostat to control an electric valve for that apt. It may be that in the near future, much of your business will involve converting bldgs to hot water heat with zone valves, but you obviously have the brains to make the transition. Have you also considered studying air conditioning?

would a condenser boiler work fine with water and steam radiator?

My air valve is the round one but it has a little cap/lid that is screwed in the top. Should I loosen that cap or keep it on tight?

Hi my steam radiator is making a large bang sound like someone is hitting the wall it almost sounds like a crack. Can it explkde? I am afraid I have to sleep in the same room as it

You can control the heat output of the radiator to a considerable degree simply by covering it with something to restrict the air flow over it. A large beach towel or blanket will work well. But opening the window? That would waste fuel, increase CO2 emissions, and be environmentally irresponsible!!

Can i remove a section of the radiator thats crackedand just leave it out, put radiator back together, and still work?

Thanks for the vid. I am restoring a 100plus year old home and it has those beautiful floral single pipe steam radiators. My vents are not like the ones you show, they are brass and appear to have a square key that is used to manually open the bleeder. Is that common? I have not fired it and am just trying to learn. Thanks for the vids man.

Could you do a video on completing a heating system

I put it on the screw is in the way can’t find extension to get pass it

There is nothing wrong with trades. Before I got my degree and became a computer programmer / analyst, I had a trade school certificate in industrial electronics and worked as an electrical technician for a manufacturer of engines and generators for seven years. I did much of my degree work with night courses; it was one of my better decisions. If you'd like to discuss education and occupations, we could find a more efficient way to do do.

There is a real danger using steam valves that are not full port (opening ) reason being on a ONE pipe system the steam enters the radiator and the same pipe is used for return condensate. If the valve opening is reduced such closing the valves half way thinking they can throttle the heating and realizing by reducing the inlet / outlet the condensation cannot return and when steam is introduced into the radiator it hits the water (condensate) and now you have a very dangerous condition hydraulic shock AKA water hammering. Water hammering can bust pipes cause the air valve to be blown off and risk peoples lives which recently happened in the Bronx (NYC) where two toddlers were scalded to death . Hot water heating (hydronics) allows for a lot of miscalculations and the system will still work stream systems are not forgiving if the boiler is undersized or improper location of vents and or steam traps . It never pays to use cheap valves as it is dangerous and may be the most costly valve you ever bought when it fails With air vent the different size orifices can help balance the system. Larger air vents are installed farther away from the boiler and slammer ones used in rooms that do not need as much heat. With Danfoss there is a remote bulb available so the radiator can be covered even though there will be severe heat loss as your not getting proper air flow in many cases Great video, keep up the great job

I have old steam radiator it’s turn up it’s keyless and no steam just the cut off valve

Can you still buy new steam radiators

10:30 With HW systems, assuming the thermostat is in another room, my method of last resort has always been to cover or stuff the radiator with a blanket or some other fluffy material to block the air and heat transmission (at 180 degrees F, no blanket is going to catch fire). A more civilized version of that would be a cabinet with an adjustable damper, possibly only on the top and bottom to convert the thing into a convector. Of course, it seems that steam systems are a minefield of unintended consequences, so I'm not 100% certain that this would be as harmless with them. Is it reasonable to assume that steam will never heat a radiator to temperatures that could start a fire? Are there any other potential problems one could expect by blocking the heat dissipation?

Are you familiar with something called a "vapor heat" system. It would be from 1935 & my Dad thought it was terrific. But I cannot find anything on the net about it.

@akwesi100 Where did you learn all of this? Is this your profession?

14:31...YUP!!!!! Terrible valve. Likely to fail open and then the radiator won't get hot (if I remember right). Just hiss all the time.

With that hole in the floor, aren't you concerned about waterbugs coming in?

Can steam work for in floor heat using three eighths inch tubing through the floor?

Thanks so much for this detailed video. I don't remember if I messaged you before or not, but two questions: do you know anything about separating the columns (or sections) these types of vintage cast iron radiators if you're looking to make them smaller? I was thinking of sand blasting and then doing a bare metal mercury or mirror polish finish like this: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aeCfksaZzLqdmqc.html&pp=ygUgbWlycm9yIHBvbGlzaCBjYXN0IGlyb24gcmFkaWF0b3I%3D or this one: kzfaq.infoj0kshgDHdlA It seems like all the companies that do this properly are only based in the UK. Also, I want to make a vintage one I saw smaller and would have to separate it in two places in order to keep the feet on each end. Then reattach the two ends Second question: I've seen many vids, blogs etc. on how to convert a steam to hot water system, but virtually nothing on how to convert hydronic to steam. Any tips there?

i BLEED MY RADIATOR AND AIR CAME OUT BUT NO WATER CAME OUT. ALL OTHER RADIATORS IN THE HOUSE WORK OK. WHY IS THERE NO WATER COMING OUT?

FIrst of all, thanks for sharing your impressive knowledge!!! I have two questions I hope you can help with. I have an old cast iron rad with the input and return pipes beside each other. When installing a tap valve on one of them: does it matter if the valve is on the incoming or return pipe? do I have to disassemble both connections in order to install teh valve? I assume so but wondered if there is a trick to just doing one of them. Many thanks!

Steam valve leaks

NICE Work. You are a wealth of knowledge akwesi100! Thanks for sharing all of your expertise. I was just about to buy a bunch of fancy old steam radiators and connect hot water to them. In 17 minutes You made me understand, why It won’t work.