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
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
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.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 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.
Even if she’s not renting, like it’s a condo association or co-op situation, do the same thing. Report it. Could be a sign of something worse in the whole system.
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’ve been given time to fix something myself before we call a professional, which seems reasonable to me. Even the time window of an afternoon, for something as important as heat makes sense, because you don’t want to be unheated overnight and have your pipes freeze
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.
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.
OP shouldn’t be doing it even if they are a licensed plumber, since it’s the landlord’s responsibility, not theirs. Even if they know what they’re doing, it opens up legal liability.
Ya’ll gonna blow your minds on this one:
People make shit up on the internet.
Also, even if not made up, people have this bantering shit all the time. Nobody bats an eye if it’s worded like “My friend bet me I couldn’t do this myself in 8 hours and said just call a professional, I said I could do it.”
A happy relationship is a friendship where you can challenge each other. You have no idea what the tone is.
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.
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What if you don’t do it in one afternoon? What happens then? She dumping you or what?
Get a different girlfriend
Or a second one.
Are you insane? Unless you’re looking for serious injury you leave it the fuck alone
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
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.
