First-World Problems...

Ah...the trials and tribulations of an old house. That's a steam valve on a 90-year-old radiator and, amazingly enough, it still works! For certain definitions of "work." As many of you know, the valves are sort-of-adjustable, so the steam warms each radiator in the desired order. Ideally the coldest room of the house has the fastest valve so it gets steam the quickest. And the radiators nearest the thermostat should probably get steam more slowly, otherwise the thermostat will detect the set temperature before the rest of the house is warmed up.

At least that's the plan.

But they are old and sticky from years of hard water (my town is famous for hard water!) and thousands of heating and cooling cycles that have done who-knows-what to the metal.

So, you say, "Hey Dildo, what are you, an idiot? Just swap out the valves for the good modern ones that are easy to adjust!"

Except, I have nightmares of cracking off the valve inside the radiator, or even worse, cracking the body of the radiator. And all of them are built into the walls...not one is free standing.

I could just hand the problem off to a plumber, but that would be admitting defeat, and I hate that! Plus, each radiator is several hundred dollars to replace, so I think I will just suffer the almost unendurable agony of rooms that are one degree apart!

posted by CBD at 02:00 PM

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