1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
The radiator makes unbearable noises throu out the night, which drives her insane. We think that this is due to air pockets in the pipes, we can hear crackling and water drops.
The heating system is common to the whole building, and I cant turn off hot water.
How do i open this shit
Why do you have to fix it?
Tell your GF to fix it.
Or are you the man of the house and you are supposed to know such things as a man?
Yes this was exctly THE reason..
But anyhoo, we found called a plumber. He said that screw is missing a cap, which makes it impossible to turn, no wonder i couldnt even budge it.
So it is not fixed, i am still alive, nothing has been flooded, and my GF calmed down. She can be rough sometimes..
The radiator makes unbearable noises throu out the night, which drives her insane.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B008MVYL7C
Works wonders in letting me sleep like a baby through my wife’s chainsaw-like snoring. Just make sure they’re inserted firmly enough and not sticking too far out or in.
You’re welcome.
find the radiator that's at the highest point/farthest from the boiler, get a container, open the valve you have pictured there and close it when there doesn't seem to be any more air coming out. use the container to catch any water. make sure to refill the water heater for your heating system, they recycle the water, so the input valves are normally shut.
edit, just saw that you have a shared system, so ignore that last bit. but when in doubt, call the building super.
also, the fact that your GF gave you "one afternoon" to fix it, it kinda sounds like a toxic personality trait. if there's anything else worrisome about her behavior, she might benefit from therapy. Having been in a relationship with someone with the dark triad, it was shit, and i kinda wish i would have been able to get her the help she needed.
I was living with roommates clueless about house maintenance stuff.
So one day I explain we should purge the radiators. Did I forget to say "purge the air"? I dont know. But the bucket I told em to use to catch water spilling one roommate thought was supposed to be used to empty the radiators.
I was on the computer and saw him from the corner of my eye go empty his bucket a few times before I caught on.
Delete your therapy break up with your lawyer and hit your face
The heating system is common to the whole building, and I cant turn off hot water.
How do i open this shit
Here's the cool part: you fucking don't.
It's not your building, heating system, or property, so you don't fucking open/break it. You open it and you're likely to be dealing with an uncontrollable amount of rather hot water, and a very angry landlord/neighbors.
Call your landlord (AND DOCUMENT IT) and complain until they fix it or tell you to fuck off. Don't do their maintenance for them unless you're willing to pay for any repair costs when they have to undo and fix properly.
Don't just call, make sure written request or digital. Gotta have a CYA (cover your ass) if you go to court.
Here is the evidence of the complaint...
Edit to add: can say "per our conversation on the phone... "
100%, can't believe I forgot to put that part in. I added a note on documentation, because you'll def need that if things progress that far.
Talk to the building owner.
If you get this wrong you'll likely cause havoc across the whole building.
Especially because some idiot painted over the key and thread.
And they used that Landlord Special colored paint.
How do i open this shit
Don't
ITT: People telling OP to break up with her because we are absolutely certain that she is crazy and only gave him one afternoon to fix this, and there is no way she could have been losing sleep for days or weeks while asking him to do something about it, like hold the landlord accountable.
I thought you were being hyperbolic and then scrolled down.
Holy shit, it's no wonder sex and relationships are crashing through the floor right now. Ya'll don't know how to have human interactions anymore.
Nobody bats an eye when it's worded like "My bud told me I couldn't do this in 8 hours, said I should call a pro, I said I could do it." You people out there have no idea what the tone is like here.
If your partner isn't a friend who can challenge you and be your "bud" you're not with a good partner. Is this what you guys think relationships are really like? Dancing on fucking eggshells and being given ultimatums? It's a goddamn self report.
While I agree with this, if it bothers her she can take care of it her own damn self.
I guess op could want to take a crack at it before calling the super. But like. Figure your shit out.
This comment section really shows how important it is to specify your location when asking for advice.
Airing out radiators is like the simplest task one can do where I'm from. One flat heat screwdriver and a rag for the dripping, and you're done faster than you can even call a landlord or repair firm. No crazy steam contraptions.
So you're either calling for an expensive and time wasting repair unnecessarily or catching a faceful of scalding steam, if you take advice from the wrong part of the world...
Talk to your GF about mutual respect in your relationship.
Or botch the heating, then give her an afternoon to clean up the water damage.
You need the radiator key to bleed the air out of the system. Since you said this is common throughout the building I recommend you don’t touch this at all and let the building owner handle the issue.
Call the owner to fix it. If it causes water damage, you'll be on the hook for that because you fucked with radiator.
Also what's with the "gave me one afternoon" bit? No one can "give you" time. Do you "give" her afternoons to do a chore? How would that go for you? That sounds like a mother telling a 5 year old they better clean their room "this afternoon or else no dessert"
I have no idea why everyone here is saying to not do jack shit. Like, is the us system so different than what im used to?
Here is an information dump of what i know, and what my experiences is from 9 years of being the handyman in an elderly home. And yes, i called in experts enough times on heating issues. I know my ( local ) shit.
Would you describe the sound like a knocking, rumbling sound? If so, turn it all off, check the pressure of the heater and get a plumber. Youre pushing steam or nothing through the system and the piping doesnt like it. Scary sound if its bad tbh. Also a serious issue you need a plumber for, as the heater or preassure tank is likely fucked.
Would you describe the sound like blub blub, airbubbles popping or a waterfall? If so, there is air in the closed loop of the radiators. It happens, and its recommended to check all radiators once a year when it gets colder. Nothing bad about it, easy to fix/remedy.
You can also validate this by turning on the heating system and noticing, on top of the sound, that only part of the radiator heats up.
This is usually a problem with the highest radiator of your system, or the farthest radiator of your loop.
If it happens more than once a year -> you might have a leak somewhere ,if water pressure remains the same, get a plumber to check on the system or radiator system.
The later can easily be remedied. Go to the radiator that makes sound and try and find the following : 
It is an release valve intended to let air in, or out, of the system. It is on the top side of the radiator, on the opposite side of the knob. Turn on the heating system, wait a bit for it to heat up. Then use the special key, or screw driver to very very slowly turn it open. You will hear air escape at one point, or drips of water coming out of the small hole you see in the picture. If you can no longer hear air escape, or a steady small stream of water comes out, all air is released and you can close it again.
I'm with you there. Sure, if you get stupid and screw the valve all the way out, you are fucked and flooded. But to unscrew it completely, you'd have to exercise an overwhelming amount of stupidity.
Degassing radiators is a really simple operation - you either have a special square inverted key, which fits the valve or just use a flat screwdriver and slowly turn the degassing valve until it starts hissing. You let it out until the air turns into a very small stream of radiator water - but the stream is extremely mild and if you close it after a seond it does so, there's usually no more then couple of drops of water.
I have no idea why there should be some sort of superheated steam like anyone is freaking out. Radiator water is usually around 50C if you have an old system or even lower if your heater uses new fancy equiterm curves. Nothing that would burn you.
Of you don't know how or what bleeding a radiator is, talk to your building maintenance person.
You don't want to get scalded or flood the room with hot water.
How do I open this shit?
You call an expert/building maintenance and don't fuck with it yourself.
Get a girlfriend who doesn’t impose arbitrary limitations on the work you do.
Especially on work that OP has absolutely no business doing himself unless he's a licensed plumber.
My dude, if you open that you're going to get blasted with steam. Call the guy who owns the building and tell him the problem sounds expensive.
Are you insane? Unless you're looking for serious injury you leave it the fuck alone
Thank God you asked us first, or you might end up looking like you opened the Ark of the Covenant.
Hound the landlord; this is a habitability issue and interferes with the quiet enjoyment of your residence.. A lawyer would love to help convince anyone who gives you shit about fixing it.
What if you don't do it in one afternoon? What happens then? She dumping you or what?
Don't touch dude. Radiator are not simple to work on. Call a professional or put yourself out thousands by breaking it
Different place or different girlfriend
Do you live in the top or first floor? Just wondering if you're about to flood your bedroom with the smelly and rusty radiator water of just one floor or the entire building.
Don't touch it. Bleeding radiators is a job for the maintenance, not you.
-Plumber
It’s possible that noise and popping you hear is the steam in the radiator flashing back and forth from steam to condensation. It means the condensate isn’t draining properly. This is not a problem you can fix yourself. You need to tell the building manager, who needs to hire a pipefitter. If you try to do this yourself, there is a high likelihood that you will damage something beyond your ability to repair, and you could very well seriously burn yourself while you’re at it.
She means for you to tackle the issue, not necessarily fix it yourself.
Get the owner to fix it, call a janitor or plumber, or anyone who knows how to fix it.
Why one day? Are you filming a reality TV show where you need artificial time pressure to make it seem entertaining?
Spotify - Brown Noise 12 hours. Blast that nice and loud. Get a fan. Call the super.
