CAST IRON BASE BOARD VS COPPER FIN

Here is a subject i did not come across, witch is better copper fin or cast iron baseboard. I have cast iron, but somebodytold me copper is better because i doest take long to heat up(hence more efficient) i think the opposite. when my boiler is done heating it holds the heat for hours. does anybody have proof Yanche always has the proof to back up his theory. anybody with input????

They basically do the same job, they just react a little differently. Cast iron is heavy and a pain, that is why no one uses it. The big complaint with copper is the noise as it heats up and cools down, but the newer systems have pretty much eliminated that at this point. Unless you can get the cast stuff for next to nothing, I would go copper. And if you already have cast iron, your lucky.

Just my opinion but I'd imagine there's no difference between the two BTU for BTU. However I think this may also depend on your enviroment and setup. For example if a it's warmer time of the year and you get demand for heat early morning the furnace is going to be running that much longer to meet the demands of the thermostat if it's cast iron, especially if it didn't run much at night. This presents other problems because I've had furnaces go ut because of this, they get such a head of steam going they don't run for hours on the automatic timer.

I'd also imagine it would be quite efficinet and comfortable for that matter if it was very cold and you had a automatic cycle to push water through the lines on regular basis once every half hour or so for the cast iron. The furnace wouldn't have to fire up as much to meet the demands for the thermostat.

Cast iron is the superior product. It's not installed today because of cost. It is true from a cold start it will take cast iron longer to start radiating heat than copper baseboard. That's because of its much larger thermal mass. Same on cooling down, cast iron will take longer to cool. Depending on the particular time in the heating season this will be desirable or undesirable. With either it is possible with modern hydronic controls to get uniform heat through out the season. Indoor-outdoor temperature sensing aquastats can change the boiler water temperature to match the heating requirement. Or some return water can be mixed with the boiler supply water to cool it as needed. I would not remove any existing cast iron baseboard. If anyone is giving any away I gladly take it.

Yanche wrote:Cast iron is the superior product. It's not installed today because of cost.

Has it been a while since you carried some up three flights of stairs?

coaledsweat wrote:Has it been a while since you carried some up three flights of stairs?

Yes it's been a while but with the right equipment it's no more difficult than moving that boiler to the basement or the cast iron radiator to the bedrooms. It was especially easy getting LSFarm's A-A 260 out of that basement. I just watched, took pictures and let the professionals do the work.

Well somebody had to take pictures and I must say they were nice ones at that "PROFESSIONALS" NOW THAT IS FUNNY

HEY YANCHE! dont have any laying around but i know used is 30 dollars a foot . when i remodeled my house i put the cast back in 465 feet to be exact and connected them with pex feeds and returns

I do not know which is better, the copper or the cast, but for me I prefer cast iron because it looks better to me and is more durable and extends a little bit less from the wall. If you have to look at it everyday I think style has to be weighed into the equation as well as efficiency. I prefer the old cast radiators in an older house because they “look right” in an old house. Cast iron baseboard and radiators also stand up well to kids. The house I grew up in the score is radiators 2, kids heads 0 and maybe there are some I am not aware of.
How long will it be until they treat old houses with radiators like old houses with lead paint? Your children or your radiators? How did we ever live to be adults back then? The crisis continues…

I’d agree with Yanche, he knows.

I’ve seen them re-furbish cast iron radiators on This Old House or a similar show. People were paying big bucks to have their radiators sandblasted and refinished.
It’s amazing how much detail some of the cast radiators have, but normally it’s covered over by many layers of paint.

I could see the pictures of the cast iron radiators getting winched up the steps.

I vote cast iron radiators as well because they are abundant at yard sales, auctions, curbside pickup pile at a remodeling job, Craigslist, etc... Usually they cost no more than $20 each, even for fancy 6 row 8' long ornate antiques. I think they add character as well. Good, cheap, or easy, you can't have all 3.