hey mo hey richard here these radiators
are keeping you up at night oh yeah it's
amazingly loud it sounds like someone's
taking a jackhammer just whacking the
pipes it reminds me of my old first
apartment
yeah now anytime i hear this hammering
issue i look at a couple of things okay
now here is one of the risers coming up
from the basement yep in this case it
goes to this radio but also continues up
to a third floor radiator now here's the
steam coming up it's not going to want
to go into this radiator unless the air
that's already in the radiator can leave
so a very important valve is right here
this is an air vent okay so you'll hear
hissing like that here
now the steam's coming the steam's
coming and when the steam finally hits
that vent it closes now the steam is
captive inside the radiator gives up its
heat to the room and when it does that
steam cools
now the valve has to do another thing it
has to open so that that condensation or
water can make its way back to the
boiler because it has to break the
vacuum okay the other thing i look for
is any place where this water could be
trapped in the wrong place
imagine a sag pipe or a radio that's
pitched the wrong way no what do you
mean pitch the wrong way well we always
want
the condensation to work its way back
towards this valve so it goes back to
the boiler got it imagine if it wasn't
now you'd have water sitting right here
yep when that steam comes up over the
top of it that cool water has the effect
of cooling the steam now the steam will
decrease in volume by about 1700 times
and collapse and when it does it'll pull
that water and bang it around inside
this sound just like a hammer wow okay
so we're looking for any place where a
pipe is sagged or radiates well you know
this one actually isn't so bad but the
one in the living room is incredibly
loud and so
all right
hey mo i rest my case look at this thing
do you see do you see anything wrong
with that picture yeah yeah it's totally
tilted over okay i can see it pitched
the wrong way this way which is not a
big problem but it's going
this way so now we're going to have
water
sitting right down here and every time
the livestream comes you're going to get
that bang yep so i think our mission
starts with getting this radiator on the
level
all right we turn the thermostat down so
the boiler doesn't come on
with a level we will see just how far
off this guy is
now there's our bubble it's off now if i
get it up to just to a level point
right about there that's what about
three quarters of an inch right there so
we've got to shim this radiator up how
do we do that well there's all these
furniture pads or coasters now i'm going
to use today these pads right here
because i can put as many together as i
need to get the right height to shim it
before we move the radiator at all i
want to get a little bit of play by
loosening this nut
okay mo just lift your end of the radio
towards you a little bit
there you go right there
okay now look at this the radiator gone
you can see
just how rotted this floor is over here
it's going this way and that way this
valve's probably been leaking over time
so to give this radiator a little more
support i think we're going to start
with a couple of shims on this end
now we're going to just take the end of
the radiator again mo yep
push to me a little bit there we go
good
so now we have it supported on this end
and plumb
now we'll show up the other side
i'm going to lift the radiator using the
wrench as a lever
and i want you to put the shims
underneath it now this floor drops off
pretty dramatically so why don't we
start with like four shims in the back
okay
all right good throw the three in
there i'm gonna drop it get it centered
okay
now let's check that for level
all right
looks pretty good we are level which
means now the water is going to work its
way back to the valve great so now just
hold the radiator while i tighten up
this nut
okay
now before i leave i'm also going to
change this vent
all right i want a little teflon tape on
this thread well why don't you back off
the old one here carefully
good i'm glad that did not break
me too makes it a much longer job
all right here's your new vent and i'm
going to thread it in
careful not to cross the threads
now the teflon provides a seal for those
threads
so the air can only come out through the
top of the vent
you don't want to over tighten and you
want the vent to be in the upright
position like so good
great is there anything else we need to
do on this radiator no we now have a
radiator that is level so the water
works its way back to the valve it's
plumb it's not falling against the
outside wall and there's a new air vent