Replacing Hot Water baseboard heating ( pic!)
Hey all. My heat this past winter has been horrible. Taking a look at the below pic might tell you why. Some of the newer slant fins i have in the same zone give off a ton more heat. Obviously, they need to be cleaned, but they are so horrible and old, better to replace. Question -- can I cut the pipe at the location in red, throw on a shark bite-- (do the same at the other end) and replace the entire unit -- cover and heating fins? I happened to like sharkbite fittings and they are rated to be installed in the walls and other inaccessible places. Some old school folks here might have a different opinion though. My experience with sharkbites is that you need to have a very good grip on the pipe that you want to slide the fitting onto and the fitting has to be lined up properly as well. If that pipe is loose under the subfloor you might have problems putting the fitting on it. The fittings are bulky and it looks like you will also need to cut a large hole in the tile so it would fit. Sharkbites do have their place... but personally I don't feel that this is it. As Diver has said, the two pipes to be joined must be in perfect alignment. If there is any force to the side, 'torsional force', the O-ring inside can be pushed to the side and the joint can leak. The ends of the pipes must be perfectly reamed and chamfered before inserting into the fitting. Even the smallest burr can damage the 0-ring ... and it will leak. Expansion and contraction of the copper pipes will put longitudinal stress on the fittings... which they should be able to handle... but well, I just would not have that warm fuzzy about it... Your intended location to install the SB fitting could have it drip...drip...dripping... into the floor joist area for a long time without it being noticed, and by then, wood rot and mold can have developed. If you DID opt to go the SB route anyway, I would say to use couplers on the horizontal section rather than an elbow at the end... cut the pipe about 3-4 on the horizontal away from the elbow and install new elements slightly shorter so that you have room for the fittings on the horizontal. HINT: Before cutting any pipes, PRE-CLEAN the pipe while it is still in place. Use some plumbers sandpaper and polish the pipe up real good BEFORE you cut it. This way you won't be trying to clean all that crud off there and have the pipe wriggling all around on you. Really though, there's no substitute for solder. I would just try cleaning those existing baseboards rather than replacing. You could refinish the metal surrounds. Brand new baseboards, if that dirty, would perform poorly. But to the question about cutting the pipe. I would drain and unsolder, and then re-solder the connections to the replacement baseboard. Why don't you cut it on the other side of the 90s. Basically just cut the element out, this way you won't have to put new 90s on the new element. You can get a couple shark bite couplings if you want and just replace the straight pieces and leave the 90s in place. Basically just cut it where the fins start on the element. Clean them, compressed air will make them look like new. compressed air will make them look like new. It will... but oh that cloud of dust! You'll be vacuuming and dusting for MONTHS to get rid of it! I understand that opinions on whether or not to replace them is not what you asked for, but I agree with those who suggested simply cleaning what you have. Some compressed ir will go a long way toward cleaning, and a pair of needle nose pliers will straighten the fins out. No doubt that they collect a lot of dust, so need to be cleaned periodically, but as far as inefficiency, I would start with cleaning all of the runs, but also make sure that furniture is placed far enough from the wall to allow the heat to circulate, and check the system itself, to make sure that it is bleeding air properly. I tend to think that cleaning should be the first option myself... if it can be done, ummm, cleanly... If one could devise some sort of low volume pressure washer, let's say an air compressor with a fitting that would draw some cleaning fluid, even plain water, into the air stream... and couple that with a good wet-dry shop vac... one could spray down the elements with a high pressure stream of wet air to keep the dust down, and suck it up with the vac as soon as it came out. Slide plastic sheeting up under the elements to protect the surrounding area. Even just a strong vacuum with a brush that fits between the fins would help tremendously. With that said though... I have to admit that when I purchased this home back in the last century that the baseboards were in similar condition as these apparently are... and I cut the whole mess out and replaced them all. So, I'm not one to talk...
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