Thread: Winterized, eh?

Someone forgot to winterize the heating system.

radiator.jpg

Thank you for sharing this. Nice educational photo , I always wondered what the inside looked like , also good for educating customers . how bad was the rest of the damage

Originally Posted by Dwight Doane

...how bad was the rest of the damage

That's the $ 64,000 question. Didn't see any other damage, but there's no way to know without replacing that radiator and then pressure testing the system. Could be all kinds of hidden damage.

Is that a cast iron radiator? Seems like an unlikely place for freeze damage to occur, I would expect that to be near the bottom of the unit.

Looks more like someone took a hammer to it.

Cool photo regardless!

Originally Posted by Rod Butler

Looks more like someone took a hammer to it.

Agreed.

We have seen several of these over the last few years in foreclosures. The top seems to be the weakest area, at least in my observation although I saw one when almost everything was broken. If the radiators are blowing out what do you think the boiler case looks like?

I have, and like, hydronic heating in my 113 year old Victorian. It's a minus 24F outside as I write this. If I lost heat I'd probably have the same thing in 24 hours or so. Scary!

Originally Posted by Marshall Brown

We have seen several of these over the last few years in foreclosures.

Check out the carpet. If that blew up from ice expansion, where are the water marks?

Originally Posted by Mike Lamb

Check out the carpet. If that blew up from ice expansion, where are the water marks?

Then there is the question of where are the broken pieces?

Rod does make an interesting point (his comments are below)

So why would this bust at the top ? Simple , Ice floats so the ice would raise to the top and more ice would build on the crystal structure and expand - where are the pieces Doctor Watson ? don't know , Water marks if the system was not pressurized then the water would be limited and the ice might have evaporated before it could create water damage


"Rod Butler

Re: Winterized, eh?
Is that a cast iron radiator? Seems like an unlikely place for freeze damage to occur, I would expect that to be near the bottom of the unit.

Looks more like someone took a hammer to it.

Cool photo regardless!

The water marks are running down the side of the radiator, running down from that rusted top edge of the bottom of the opening - that indicates, at least to me, that there had been a long term crack in that casting and that piece finally broke the rest of the way off.

I doubt someone took a hammer to it, unless it was to see how long the crack was, and while pinging it to listen to the cracked cast iron ring (cast iron pipe has a different ring to it when it is cracked then when it is not cracked, I suspect cast iron radiators would also have a different ring when cracked).

If that was just damage caused by someone breaking it I doubt those water stains would be there and that top edge of the bottom of the hole would not be rusted like that.