Hi,

House was built in the 1950’s with hot water heating system.

Though the hot water lines surrounded with metal fins run along the lower part of the walls, the radiators in each room are about 30 inches tall and 4 inches deep with a flat cover that has vents on it’s upper area and a cut out on the lower edge to allow air flow.  To remove this cover, you slide it up half an inch or so to unhook it from a bar that runs parallel to the hot water pipe.  You then pull the bottom of the cover away from the radiator and lower it out from under the radiator housing.

Once the cover is off there’s a bleed valve on the right end of the heater pipe and what looks sort of like a doorknob all the way on the left side.  In some rooms that knob will only turn a quarter of the way in either direction to close the valve and stop heat from entering that radiator.  There’s one radiator however that won’t budge going clockwise and the pipe is still hot, so I’m assuming it’s fully open.  Afraid to break something, we were able with great force (and lots of dirt and rust falling) to get it to move counterclockwise and it moves alot in that direction, which means it’s either broken or stripped or I don’t know what.  I can’t find any videos online that even picture this style radiator let alone how to turn the heat valve on and off.  Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.  Is it time to call a plumber or the oil burner guy?