Each winter in NYC residents either complain their apartment is either too hot or too cold. We would like to advise residents some winter radiator tips, to explain your radiator and hopefully help owners avoid future repair costs due to misuse. Most apartment radiators will resemble one of those pictured below.

Heat to your apartment is in the form of steam. Once it’s in your radiator, this steam cools down, turns to water, and returns down to the boiler. Steam system pipes do double duty:  carry the steam to a radiator and also return the condensate (that is, water that condenses) from the radiators through the same pipe.Apartment radiators should have two valves connected to it (as photo). An Air Valve that vents the radiator, and a Steam Valve that permits steam to enter the radiator and condensate to exit. Condensate is the result when the steam has surrendered its thermal energy to the cast iron radiator sections. This process condenses the steam and now in liquid form it uses gravity to follow the pipes back to the basement boiler where it is recycled to become steam yet again.

• When valve is turned counter-clockwise all the way, the valve is ON and the radiator will HEAT when the steam is available.

• When valve is turned clockwise all the way, the valve is OFF and NO HEAT will result when the building’s automatic valve cycles to heat the rest of the building.

• If the steam valve is off & leave your apartment, your unit will not get the heat needed to maintain your apartment at a comfortable temperature. When you turn the valve on, there is no guarantee that steam will be available at that time. Thus no guarantee that your unit will begin to receive heat, and in fact it may be several degrees lower than apartments that had their valves open during the same time period.
  
• This valve should always be either all the way ON or all the way OFF.  Any other setting can trap water in the radiator and contribute to banging pipes. This condensate may also leak out of the air valve and water may leak from the radiator, pool on your floor or leak into your downstairs neighbor’s apartment. It doesn’t take much for water from your heater to show up in their ceiling.  

The heating cycle can be interrupted when someone shuts off the valve at the radiator, or even just screws it a bit open. Then there’s not enough room for both the hot air rising and the cooled down water to co-exist. Thus, some condensate may leak out of the air valve. When the water leaks from your radiator, it might pool on your floor or leak into your downstairs neighbor’s apartment. It doesn’t take much for water from your heater to show up in their ceiling.

This happened to one unit last year and the owner whose radiator leaked had to pay to repair the downstairs ceiling.  If all residents are aware how to use the radiator valves (either ON or OFF), we can avoid having any leaks this winter.

The silver device on the opposite end of the radiator is called an Air Valve and controls the rate that the radiator can heat.. It allows the steam to displace the cool air in an empty radiator by venting that air. When the hot steam reaches its temperature sensitive element it closes, thereby trapping the hot steam in the radiator where is must surrender it’s Btu’s to the surrounding cast iron. The hot cast iron warms the nearby room air and convection moves the warm air around the room to heat the space. The setting on this valve controls the rate at which this venting process occurs, thereby the rate at which the radiator heats and is set relevant to the rest of the radiators in the building. Never, Remove The Air Valve or Turn it Upside Down! This can allow raw steam to escape from the system and enter the apartment.