Radiator Hell

So, remember this post? Course you do, it was just this morning. That sound of running water I mentioned.... um, yeah. 

We were told to go get a radiator key and bleed the radiators, as there was probably an air pocket preventing pressure and water from getting upstairs to the those radiators. We got the key from the local hardware store, and we bled the old radiators upstairs: nothing but a lot of air came out.  Then to downstairs.  All air coming from these radiators until I get to the sun room, which we have closed off for the winter as it is really cold since the room is basically windows with no insulation and only one of the two radiators in there works.  

I open the door to that room and discover this:

A Closer view: 

The non-working radiator, the one with shelving built around it--yeah, it was the one that sprung a leak.  Really, it was more of a stream.  A stream that has been running into that room, onto to the floor, through the floor, outside of the house, and into the crawl space below the house.  We have 5 cm think icicles on the side of the house!  

ARGH!!!!!!

We called a lovely heater/plumber/ac repair man and he found a crack in the radiator valve. About four hours and $800+ later,  he discovered that this radiator was not hooked into the main system, but had been capped off on the supply side of the water. But water still went through the cold radiator.... Yeah, I didn't get it either. 

So, he explained.  Radiators have two pipes connecting them to the main water supply line that leads to the boiler.  The boiler heats the water and the pressure is what runs it through the pipes.  The connecting pipes to the radiator bring hot water to it--that is what heats the room-- and cold water runs out of it and back to the main line, back to the boiler, to be reheated. Now, this radiator had been disconnected to the supply of hot water but not from the cold water.  So the cold water from the entire system still ran through this radiator, and in this instance, had been leaking for at least a week into the sun room.  The great thing about boilers, too, is that they are constantly refilling to heat water to send it out again to keep the house warm.  That meant that the radiator had basically an endless supply of water to pour out of itself, until we turned off the heat entirely. 

As Will likes to say, "Basically, it was a big, ol' messy mess." (Though, to be honest, this was not the *first* phrase that came out of Will's mouth)....

The plumber dude recommended that we at some point hook this one back into the main system.  But that *someday* will be way after the wedding and when hell freezes over...oh wait, it did.  In my sun room.