My First Radiator

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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 6:08 pm

Today I got my first radiator. I don't know a lot about radiators so, hopefuly the good people of this forum will help me out a bit here. It's an American Standard, 26"H x 40"L x 8" Deep, nothing fancy. It had 3/4" inlet and outlet pipes and an air bleed.

I guess the first question is; How many BTU's will one of these suck out of my boiler?
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I flushed it out with lots of hot water and pressureized it to about 47 PSI, 110 degrees. When flushing it, nothing came out of it but water.
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It's sitting out there with pressure in it now. I will look at it and drain it out in about an hour.

Thank you for any info you may have,

Don


 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 6:11 pm

StokerDon wrote:I guess the first question is; How many BTU's will one of these suck out of my boiler?
Nice!

I believe that with hot water they are generally rated to yield about 150 to 180 BTU's per square foot of surface area. About 8,000 to 10,000 BTU's is my guess.
Last edited by lsayre on Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 6:19 pm, edited 3 times in total.

 
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northernmainecoal
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Post by northernmainecoal » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 6:12 pm

looks like it is in nice shape! I don't have any experience with them but am interested in seeing what others have to say about it. I've been watching for some to pick up for this place but have yet to find anything. good luck with it!

 
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SWPaDon
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Post by SWPaDon » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 6:23 pm

Brings back memories from when I was growing up.

 
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Post by CoalHeat » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 7:00 pm

Radiators rock! I have a collection of them waiting to be installed here. So far I only have one installed in the kitchen.

 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 7:03 pm

there's some charts on here that might help! I know they take up space, but work really well.

Pictorial: Cast Iron Radiator Sizing Charts, BTU Output

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 7:42 pm

That American Radiator is known as a "slenderized" radiator. American Radiator and Standard Sanitary eventually became "American Standard".

Before the introduction of the slenderized design radiators were larger and heavier. Since the key to radiation is surface area, radiators were big to get as much surface area as possible. The slenderized design greatly increased surface area with a smaller footprint.

That radiator is a "5 pass", each section has 5 tubes to radiate heat. The more tubes the more heat radiation.

Radiators are sized for heat output by the number of sections.

They are connected together in two ways: If the unit has four steel rods with threads and nuts at the ends holding it together then it is built using "push nipples". Each section has has machined steel nipples between it and the next sections. The push nipples are tapered, large diameter in the middle tapering to smaller diameter on the outside edges. The radiator is assembled, the 4 rods are installed and tightened, compressing the sections together. The other method of assembly is to use threaded nipples to connect the sections together, each section is assembled to the next one and the threaded nipple is installed. This type of assembly can be identified by the absense of the 4 steel rods.

Radiators on steam or hot water systems are essentially the same, the difference is Hydronic (hot water) will have an inlet and an outlet along with an air vent on the outlet end near the top. Steam radiators generally have one bottom opening used, with an air vent installed midway up on the opposite end.


 
waldo lemieux
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Post by waldo lemieux » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 8:35 pm

When you install it you can put a bypass in right underneath the radiator witha ball valve and a radiator valve allowing you to customize the output. you can also shorten the thing by removing sections. If you want to do that we can walk you thru it... ;)

 
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StokerDon
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Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 8:39 pm

Thank you for the big discription Wood'nCoal. There is no sign of threaded rod or nuts, so I guess it's threaded nipples.

This one has 16 sections that are 2.5" thick. I will have to study up on this
" Pictorial: Cast Iron Radiator Sizing Charts, BTU Output " thread to figure out what kind of BTU's this will put out.

And thank you all for the information so far.

-Don
Last edited by StokerDon on Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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StokerDon
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Location: PA, Southern York County!
Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood

Post by StokerDon » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 8:46 pm

waldo lemieux wrote:When you install it you can put a bypass in right underneath the radiator witha ball valve and a radiator valve allowing you to customize the output. you can also shorten the thing by removing sections. If you want to do that we can walk you thru it... ;)
Ah, I get it, the more flow that gets bypassed, the less heat comes out of the radiator. So, I could turn the heat up or down, nice.

I don't know if I want to go taking it apart. I think it will fit nicely in the spot I need it in.

I better double check that.

-Don

 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 8:58 pm

It's a beauty. Nice find.

If you have trouble with the BTU rating, I can dig out my old books. Pretty sure I have one with radiator ratings.

 
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Post by Doby » Sat. Mar. 14, 2015 9:26 pm

Back in the 80's these were scraped around here for next to nothing, everybody wanted fin to save room in the typical half double home in the Mt Carmel Pa area. What a mistake that was and they are about indestructible. Now adays you could pay 100 bucks for one like that and from what I remember one that size was installed in rooms about 12x14 with 9 foot ceilings in poorly insulated homes

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Mar. 15, 2015 7:17 am

So with all of that data on hand, did I come close with my 8,000 to 10,000 BTUH projection?

 
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blrman07
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Post by blrman07 » Sun. Mar. 15, 2015 7:30 am

Come in from the cold and try to sit on a baseboard finned radiator. Come in from the cold and sit on a cast iron stand-up radiator and say AHHHHHH.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Mar. 15, 2015 8:19 am

blrman07 wrote:Come in from the cold and try to sit on a baseboard finned radiator. Come in from the cold and sit on a cast iron stand-up radiator and say AHHHHHH.
Radiators look a lot better also.

This radiator should be used in any room where roughly 20 feet of fin tube hot water baseboard would also be called for.


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