apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

We have a microfiber couch sitting three inches in front of a giant radiator and it is fine. Gets warm, but the fabric doesn't seem to mind.

I made a bench over my radiator and yes it did get hot for both fabric and cloth on the pillow. I am at a loss as to what to do to protect the new pillows I just had made. So for the wintertime I've decided to remove the pillows. If I find the right type of insulation I'll let you know...just an idea.

I once had a problem with my curtains being near the radiator, the water leaked and stained them. So that wasn't a heat issue, but I guess make sure you're heaters are free from leaks and steam issues.

Here's a question - anyone ever notice an odd smell coming from your radiator? I can't figure out what's making it or if it's the radiator at all. I can't even define the smell - any ideas?

Dana

Dana,
My raditor smells like cigarette smoke and absolutely makes me gag. I put a bowl of water with lemon on top the raditor and that seems to help with the smell and with the dry nose that I had when I woke up in the morning.

i had a sofa in front of the radiator for years, no spontaneous combustion. also, not very much heat for the rest of the room, but it takes pain to be beautiful. or something like that.

I have the same radiator, and it sits under the livingroom window. We have a leather sofa backed up right against it, and a pile of blankets on top of the radiator itself so the pug can sit up there and look out the window at passing cars and mailmen. Sounds like a fire hazard, I know, but both the leather on the sofas and the pile of wool blankets have been unaffected by the heat.

Thanks Peggy that's a good idea - i have an air purifier/humidifier there (by ventra which helps but it's still distintive enough that it's quite unpleasant. Lemon would be much nicer. :)

i think the stench is from the radiator water being let out as steam occasionally.
it just gets recirculated for eternity i imagine, so it can't be that clean.

Dana,

I know that when I bleed my radiators at the beginning of the winter they let off an odd smell - also hard to describe. Any chance that last time they were bled they weren’t properly closed again?

I have no idea - so sure! Is that something I should have my landlood look at or do or can i tell?

I would be cautious about putting anything too close to the radiator if the radiator got too hot to touch. You could trial the sofa by the radiator and see how hot the fabric got before deciding if it stayed there or not.

I also have radiators under the window throughout my apartment. I have had furniture within 2-3" of them, curtains which touched them and plants that sat on them, all without problems. Well, the plants were rather thirsty through the winter, but they seemed to like the warmth. If you are able to touch the rad without discomfort, I don't think there would be any problem. It probably isn't any worse than a sweltering day in July

Thank you for the responses! I think I'm going to try a (non-leather) ottoman or bench so that the heat still has someplace to go rather than just straight up the wall.

The thing to remember about hot water or steam radiators is that how well they heat your place depends on how good the air circulation is around them. Blocking off the air circulation will result in less effective apartment heating.

That being said, for most fabrics, sustained exposure to heat is not a problem. Exposure to water is.

Make sure that there are no leaks in the rad system within your apartment by looking for surface corrosion. If it's wet to the touch, you have a valve leak. This is an easy repair for the landlord or condo/co-op corp to do once the heating season is over. But it is one that they will want to co-ordinate with other apartment repairs, as it involves draining the water down a floor or two to do the repair. It's not terribly convenient.

This is also a repair that shouldn't be left, it advances surprisingly rapidly, and will result in very expensive in-wall/floor/ceiling repairs due to pipe and component corrosion if not dealt with within a year of so of appearance.

Have just gone through a round of these repairs at my co-ownership co-op in Toronto. These rapidly become expensive if left. (we are having on-going "owner education" as to why this is a bad thing) We are scheduling more "early" repairs for next summer.

As to funky smells at the start of heating season, that is usually due to accumulated dust burning on the surface of the rad unit (in where you can't dust). Water within a rad or hot water circulating system is closed. Once the dissolved oxygen separates out and is bled off, it stays the way it is. It's not necessary for pipe health that it be "clean". It's necessary that it not corrode or react with the pipe! Which it won't once the dissolved atmospherica gases are separated out.

Harley, How do you bleed a radiator?