I understand that the bleeder valves are brass and therefore easily broken. You can replace them but if the valve doesn't screw out you may have to drill them out a little small then clean out the threads in the rad casting. I watched Rich Trathuey (spelling questionable) do this on "Ask This Old House".
Some of the really old systems use steam which rises up into the rad then condenses to water and gravity feeds it back down through the one feed pipe. These need to be separately disconnected or have a valve installed. The original installations depended on the amount of heed being fired at the boiler to regulate the home temperature. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 11:46 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] a boiler question. One easy way to limit the heat going through those radiators is to bleed air into them. I've done this at my house. You need to open the bleeder valve on those radiators you don't want to get hot, then open the drain valve on the boiler and drain out several gallons of water. This will suck air into the rads and will prevent them from getting as warm. There is still a reasonable amount of heat conduction through the piping so it is possible but not a given that they will freeze up. On my rads, the valve knobs broke off, and the all the vice grips on the stem did was sheer the stem off. Some of these puppies are just old and stubborn. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
