HELP! Insanely hot heating poles radiators

tybur6 wrote:
However, this is something he should tell the landlord/super about. If the problem can be diagnosed and solved, there would be a lower chance of the "water hammer" bursting a pipe/joint and causing bigger problems. And he might be able to get to sleep.

tybur6, I'm not sure which online school you got your plumbing license from but I have to say you are a fountain of misinformation. The most absurd however is the idea that "water hammer" might burst a pipe/joint. Steam operates at 3 to 5 psi., hardly the kind of pressure capable of bursting a steel pipe connection.

Water hammer is NOT a term applicable to steam heating systems. Water hammer pertains to the sudden closing of a valve (or faucet, etc,) in a water supply system causing the flow to stop abruptly thus sending a wave or surge through the pipe. Example: Shut the kitchen faucet abruptly and you get a banging sound; that is water hammer and is corrected by a separate component called a water hammer arrestor.

Yeah, anyway, yesterday on 7th Ave. I think between Garfield and Carroll (Key Food block) I saw someone selling inexpensive radiator covers on the sidewalk. Maybe he'll be out again today.

Modsquad is the only knowledgeable person on this thread. Listen to him.

That said, Karl I love you that was hilarious photoshopping! The cat one seriously cracked me up!

OK, so if you think it's your radiator, pitch is back like ModS said. I did that to one of mine. I just put a bunch of coins under 2 of the legs. Or thick cardboard.

Pipe insulator is not expensive, just buy it, it's cheap, then you get it done fast instead of waiting weeks for the landlord to do it. As Nike says "Just do it."

Radiator covers: Contact Whynot and get him to make you one. But you better hurry, he'll be full time employed soon and he's your best bet for a cheap custom job.

Sorry, G2 and Modsquad

I think you both need to come to game night and duke it out:
http://www.brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=54333

Karl the Druid wrote: [quote=squindar]s'mores, karl. where are the s'mores???

awesome.

DanielJ wrote: Man my radiator pipes keep clanking all the time, especially in my bedroom at about 4 AM every morning. And the knob is turned all the way off. Anyone have any ideas about how to deal with that? Is there someone the super can call who can stop the clanking? The whole technology behind those damn things is beyond me.

Nobody can tell you for sure what is your problem based on the amt of information that you've given. Clanking can have more than one cause. The first thing to do is make sure that your radiator is properly pitched toward the valve, which is the knob by the floor. The air vent is the round or bullet shaped metal thing attached to the end of the radiator.

The radiator needs to be pitched back toward the valve so that water in the radiator can drain back into the system. The water is created when the steam enters the radiator and cools forming what is called condensate. It is the condensate that flows back down the pipe and back to the boiler. If the condensate cannot drain back to the boiler, then it will collide with the steam when the boiler turns on. The collision is called a water hammer because it can sound like a hammer or sledge hammer hitting your pipe. You need to check the pitch of your radiator with a leveler. You can put a piece of wood or even some quarters underneath the far legs of the radiator to pitch the radiator back toward the valve.

You can also get water hammers because a pipe underneath the floor that carries the steam has become back-pitched, which prevents condensate that has drained from the radiator and back into the system from reaching the boiler. The water sits in the pipe underneath your floor. When the steam hits that pocket of water, it creates a water hammer. There is nothing that you, as a tenant, can do to fix that because it requires the floor to be opened up and the pipe repaired by having it repitched.

The key thing to understand for a one pipe steam system, is that the steam and the condensate travel in the same pipe, at the same time, but they go in opposite directions. The steam travels away from the boiler and the condensate travels back to the boiler. That is why all of the horizontal pipes in the system must be pitched back to the boiler. The condensate travels back to the boiler on the bottom of the pipe, and the steam travels away from the boiler, to the radiators, at the top of the pipe, over the condensate. If any of the horizontal pipes are level or back pitched (pitched away from boiler), water gets trapped in the steam pipe and will create a water hammer.

Another sound that can be made is one that you will hear when the steam first comes on after it has been off for a while. This is the sound of the pipes expanding when the hot steam hits the cold pipes. This sound is less loud than a water hammer, which, as I said, sounds like John Henry is hitting your steam pipe with a sledge hammer. The sound caused by expansion is more like a click or a clack or a ping. If this is the sound that you hear, I don't know that there is much that can be done about that.

If you have questions about a steam system, I suggest visitng a website called heatinghelp.com. They have a forum called "The Wall" where you can post questions and get answers from people who know this stuff well. In The Wall, there is a forum called "Strictly Steam." That is where you should post your questions.

Good luck.

I'd love to do the rope thing on my pipes - what kind of rope is recommended and well, what do you do with the end pieces so it doesn't unravel off?

modsquad wrote: For a nautical theme you could wrap the pipe as below. Still gives off heat but won't burn.

Notice the clock?

arches wrote: [quote=doublediamond]I'd love to do the rope thing on my pipes - what kind of rope is recommended and well, what do you do with the end pieces so it doesn't unravel off?

It's called sisal or manila rope...and you need a lot of it to wrap a pipe. A 9' long, 1.5" pipe wrapped with 1/4" rope would require 170 feet.
so why not use 1/2" at 85' instead. Maybe use Liquid Nails at the ends. Use masking tape to hold until dry. I wonder if spraying with water would help tighten it up?

Subject: radiator ocvers

I'm usually on 7th Ave on Saturdays between 1:00 and 3:00 pm between Garfield and Caroll Street with a display of radiator covers. Check out my web site:
hammertimestudios.com. I come to your home to take measurements and deliver the covers a few week later.

Wow, wish this thread existed a couple years ago. We(12 unit condo building) have extremely bad water hammer noise. We had a company come in to diagnose and supposedly fix the issue. They decided all the pipes in the basement needed to be re-pitched(due to the steam, meeting water sitting in the elbow joints). $2,500 later, the hammering noise was WORSE. Yes, like someone with a sledge hammer, hammering on the freaking hull of a ship. From Oct to April, getting more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep at a time is nearly impossible. We had the company come back numerous times and each time they never heard the noise, ugh! Then we had a weekly janitor mistakenly open the city pressure valve on the boiler and release TOO much pressure into the system, bursting valves and vents throughout the building. When the boiler tech arrived and sorted the issue, I asked him about the water hammer noise issue and told him our debacle with the company that re-pitched the basement pipes. He suggested the problem lies in the proper pitching of all the radiators in the building. The company that re-pitched the pipes had finally suggested this too, but said it would be an ADDITIONAL $1,800 to do that. And no one here seemed thrilled to be paying more toward this issue, especially since it is only my half of the building that is experiencing the noise.

Additionally, when pitching a radiator, you have to be careful not to stress that joint, where the valve connects to the radiator. If the valve is old or you pitch up the back end of the radiator too high, it creates a stress point at the valve joint and that part of the valve will CRACK and LEAK.

You also have to make sure the floor under the radiator is LEVEL. Or else the radiator will knock and wobble. I actually replaced some of the hardwood flooring under one of my radiators in Oct 2007, along with replacing a leaky valve. Because the floor was so uneven from previous owners letting leaks go a long time. And thusly, the radiator was knocking and wobbling. Very annoying noise! But just 2 years later, in Dec 2009, the valve was leaking again at the joint. I had pitched up the back too high, I guess, creating too much stress at the valve joint. But i had put it up higher, cause the knocking, wobbling, noise had returned. I shut it off for the rest of the winter. And now here I am again, revisiting this issue, not wanting to freeze this winter. I think the pipe coming out of the floor, like i need to go into the basement and push/strap it up a little higher? Cause I think that's also why there is so much stress at the valve joint? Any ideas?

Also, what's the trick to getting the valve off the pipe?

BTW, I loved the edited photos. The cats on the rope post is a riot! The hot dogs too, hehe.