Radiators have steam in them.
On the day I moved in to the house, I decided to try and tackle a heating issue I've been facing.
You see, I have traditional radiators and baseboard radiatorss in my house for heat. I have 4 in the upstairs (1 traditional, 3 baseboards) and 3 in the downstairs (1 traditional, 2 baseboards). The downstairs is much larger than the upstairs. So the upstairs gets suuuuper hot, while the downstairs is extremely cold.
Not exactly an even exchange.
I spoke to my dad and he said I could turn off one or more of my radiators, to try and even out the temperatures between the upstairs and downstairs. So on the day I moved into the house, I rushed upstairs and turned the one radiator all the way off, to see how it impacted the temperature. After all, we would be going up and down the stairs all day long unpacking and moving and settling in, so if it got too cold, I could always turn it back on or raise the heat.
After I turned off the radiator, I went downstairs to the kitchen and started unpacking. For some reason, the first thing I was unpacking was all my fridge magnets. Words cannot express how happy I am that I chose that box to unpack.
Because as I stood there, putting my Heathers magnets on the fridge, a stream of water began pouring out of the kitchen light directly to my right.
I stared at the stream of water for a few moments before my brain kicked in and thought something like "find a bucket to catch the water!"
My mind was racing. It was snowing. Did I have a leak in the roof? How could the leak work its way to the first floor? What was happening?
I didn't know where a bucket was. I didn't know where anything was. So I grabbed the only thing near me, an empty cardboard box, and put it under the leak.
Then I ran upstairs to see what the problem was.
The radiator, which I had turned off minutes ago, was spurting hot water all over the carpet, which was pooling at the feet of the radiator, and following the radiator pipe down into the floor.
I quickly opened the valve and watched as the fountain of water calmed down to a drip, and eventually stopped completely.
I learned that if you turn off a radiator when it is on and hot, all that steam working to heat your home turns to water. And that water will need a place to go. And sometimes the escape route involves the kitchen.
The drips eventually stopped, the kitchen dried out, and I waited a while until I turned the lights in the kitchen on.
Regardless, the upstairs is still hot and the downstairs is still cold, but at least I know I have a warm place to escape to.