The Steam Comes in The Top

This is a steam radiator in the men’s room in a building in Gettysburg PA.  Not many buildings still have steam heat.  OK, I’m weird.  I look at things nobody else looks at. 

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The radiator is made of 3 cast iron segments.  I have seen these be short and long so apparently these segments are building blocks to larger units as needed.  This is probably well over 100 pounds of iron.  But I got down and dirty with this because of something I noticed.  The steam comes in the top left in a relatively big pipe and goes out the bottom in a small pipe, not surprising because steam is larger than the water it turns back to.  But note where the pipe leaves the radiator at the bottom.  There is a plug with an offset.   I looked at this for a couple seconds and realized why.  It is important that the plumber align this plug with the offset at the bottom so that the water that condensed in the radiator flows out.  Interesting!  The plug at the top is a large plug that closes the hole.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?  Sure but page to the next picture.   This system may be hot water rather than steam – many systems were changed that way.

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This is the plug at the bottom.  Note that we have a fitting called a reducer with a smaller plug in it.  Remember, the top right hole has a big plug that fills the hole.  Here we have a reducer and a plug.  Why?  Not sure.  Did the plumber not have a second large plug?  Is there some advantage to doing this?  One thing I know, with the reducer and plug there are two joints to seal, two joints to leak rather than one.  That means twice the reason for the plumber to come back and get paid.  If you look carefully you will see that the plug and reducer have some signs of rust, an indication that all is not well in these two joints.