How do you move radiator air vents to the top?
Old cast iron radiators often have bleeder valves positioned halfway up, which prevents them from filling fully and bleeding properly. Homeowners attempt to solve this by drilling and tapping a new valve into a top screw plug or divot, though doing so requires careful evaluation of alternative options like modifying pipe intakes.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Leaving the current vent in its suboptimal position halfway up the radiator
- 2Hypothesizing or asking experts about whether the divot was blanked off for drilling
- 3Using a sawzall to remove and throw away the radiators
- 4Breaking the return air into multiple locations and smaller openings
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I want to move the bleeder valves to the top of the radiator but have a couple options and would like advice.”source ↗
“Option 2 (Where I am leaning): There is a screw on the top right. I removed that screw and there is a divot in there that is solid at some point. I could drill into that divot and just put a bleeder valve in their directly.”source ↗
“Soooooooo, looks like the best option here is to orphan and move the intake.”source ↗
“Based on that, it looks like my current intake is wayyyyy undersized.”source ↗
“I'm pretty limited here on how much I can move the return. It has to go in one or two joist bays since I can't move horizontally across bays.”source ↗
“The current vent is fine, it is just halfway up the radiator and I would like it to be at the top so the radiators can be filled fully and be bled properly.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Can I rotate my AC condenser without damaging the refrigerant lines?
- 2How do I connect a flanged boot to rectangular duct?
- 10How to find replacement parts for a rusted water heater vent pipe
- 2How to add a vent when you can't reach the stack
- 3Exhaust vent hole doesn't line up with the new range hood
- 4How to vent a relocated plumbing sink or drain