willshak wrote:
The Daring Dufas wrote the following:
Sam Takoy wrote:
Hi,

Why is cast iron a good material for radiators? Why not another
metal? Would certainly make them a little lighter and easier to deal
with.

Thanks in advance,

Sam

I would imagine one benefit of a heavy cast iron radiator would
be the mass of metal will hold heat and release it over a long
period of time. I also think that a copper or aluminum radiator
of similar thickness would be prohibitively expensive.

TDD
The disadvantages are that they are big and ugly and get very hot (don't
allow toddlers around them). They have enclosures especially built for
them which also helps with the ugly part.
Another advantage is you don't need a humidifier, just put a pan of
water on top of them.
I was brought up in homes with steam radiators in NYC.


When I was a kid and an inmate at the Catholic Parochial Gulag back
in the middle of the last century, the building had radiators with
hissing contraptions on the top side that reminded me of the valve
on a pressure cooker. If I remember right, there was steam coming
out of the thing that could very well have contributed to keeping
the humidity up in the building.

TDD