Random Question: getting rid of radiators?

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Hi all. We're going to be converting our method of heating from steam heat (radiators) to hot water (base boards) in the next few weeks. Anyone know of anyplace that would be interested in buying the old radiators from us? (Maybe that place down in Union Sq?) I know scrappers will come and take it away free, (and the plumber doing the conversion also will take them), and I doubt they are worth much, but i thought maybe some wise person here might have done similarly before and have some suggestions.

Thanks for any suggestions. :)

ETA: 6/27/12 After emailing pictures of the radiators to Antique Plumbing Fixtures (A1 Plumbing) in Union Square, we were contacted by the owner. He bought our 8 radiators for $125. They picked up, and actually took all the piping and trash bags as well. I'm happy with the result. We got a little bit more money to put towards our renovations, and hopefully the radiators will get cleaned up and go to a good home that can love them better than we could. Oh, and we have one more radiator that still needs to come out (bathroom) and he said we can contact him when that comes out, so we might get another $10-15).

Comments

[katiemwallace.livejournal.com]

If spitting, hissing and clanging are your problems, it would be a much more economical solution to fix that problem rather than replace everything. There are ways to fix such things in both Steam or Hot Water Radiators. If these are radiators in an old early 1900's house, they have lasted a century and they were built to last another century. I have pretty silver decorative ones throughout my house. But I had no radiators in my two bathrooms and baseboard heat was added to both. One of them has already been replaced after only about 10 years, rusted, dented, yes. The other one is only 6 years old, somewhat sturdier and seems to be doing okay, but it certainly doesn't heat the room very well.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

I don't actually think that is true, given the extent of work that would be needed to fix the problems. New vents for each radiator, flushing system, potentially multiple times, and likely re-grading all the pipes would be costly, especially when combined with the number of radiators that will be moving anyways due to renovation plans. if we converted to hot water and kept the radiators, they would still need to be cleaned/flushed and then repiped to have a return line. The heating system was added after the house was built, and all of the steam pipes between floors are external (not in the walls as it often was done when put in with the house) and make certain corners in every room unusable. I agree that baseboards are probably not the prettiest or sturdiest heating methods, but for our situation, they are the best options. It's disappointing to hear that they don't heat as well, and I hope that is an unusual situation and not the norm.

[jamiesquared.livejournal.com]

I came to check out this post when my husband just mentioned it to me. Don't worry baseboard heats really well! A radiator gets to 212 and baseboard goes to 180 typically in terms of teperature inside but think about it this way...you have one radiator to a room versus baseboard that goes all around plus you get multiple zones and you can't do that with steam :)