Removing this radiator without spilling water everywhere
Discussion
Fair enough, we need to get someone to check the boiler anyway so they could maybe even power flush it without taking it off, there’s a lot of liquid/tinkling air noise when that radiator starts up, which isn’t on the others (all of which have one pipe at the bottom and a TRV at the top, didn’t realise it was unusual).
On the left hand valve, pop off the plastic cap and use a spanner to close the valve.
On the right hand valve, unscrew the thermostatic head and close the valve with a decorator’s cap
https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-radiator-valve-...
Open the bleed valve on the top left of the radiator, then with a bucket, tray or similar under rather to catch the water, crack one of the nuts that connects the bottom left valve to the rad. Just crack it enough so water slowly comes out until the rad is drained. Then disconnect both valves from the rad and gently pull the valves away from the rad to free it. Lift it up and off the wall.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, but you’ll need to find out how your heating system tops up in order to refill it.
On the right hand valve, unscrew the thermostatic head and close the valve with a decorator’s cap
https://www.screwfix.com/p/drayton-radiator-valve-...
Open the bleed valve on the top left of the radiator, then with a bucket, tray or similar under rather to catch the water, crack one of the nuts that connects the bottom left valve to the rad. Just crack it enough so water slowly comes out until the rad is drained. Then disconnect both valves from the rad and gently pull the valves away from the rad to free it. Lift it up and off the wall.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly, but you’ll need to find out how your heating system tops up in order to refill it.
Bear in mind it could be cold at the bottom not because it's full of gunk but because the system is not balanced and it's not receiving enough flow. Difficult to test for though without increasing the flow via adjusting the lockshield valve (left hand side) which may end up pushing sludge round the system.
So - to remove - turn off the lockshield valve counting the turns as you do so. Then turn off the TRV (right hand side). If you can find the decorator's cap for the TRV that would be better - it ensures the TRV remains closed, although this time of year, not likely to be a problem.
Get a load of old towels, and some shallow trays, cat litter or paint trays. And an assistant.
Then using grips and a spanner, undo the TRV from the radiator, leaving the TRV in place on the pipework. Relatively little water will spill from the top end. Get someone to stabilise the rad.
Surround the floor with old towels.
Remove the lockshield valve from the radiator, this will leak a bit, so be prepared, then as quickly as possible, with the help of your assistant, lift the radiator up off its brackets and direct the top end into a bucket/paint tray etc, whilst plugging the bottom end with your thumb.
You may find it all clear when you rinse it out in which case then you can look at balancing.
So - to remove - turn off the lockshield valve counting the turns as you do so. Then turn off the TRV (right hand side). If you can find the decorator's cap for the TRV that would be better - it ensures the TRV remains closed, although this time of year, not likely to be a problem.
Get a load of old towels, and some shallow trays, cat litter or paint trays. And an assistant.
Then using grips and a spanner, undo the TRV from the radiator, leaving the TRV in place on the pipework. Relatively little water will spill from the top end. Get someone to stabilise the rad.
Surround the floor with old towels.
Remove the lockshield valve from the radiator, this will leak a bit, so be prepared, then as quickly as possible, with the help of your assistant, lift the radiator up off its brackets and direct the top end into a bucket/paint tray etc, whilst plugging the bottom end with your thumb.
You may find it all clear when you rinse it out in which case then you can look at balancing.
I had to flush a load of mine last summer. In terms of getting it off the wall, I’d echo what others have said & add that plenty of towels and Tupperware are your friend. Before doing anything, find a couple of plastic boxes that will fit under the lock shield valve & catch the water that will inevitably emerge from it. Leaving the bleed valve shut will slow the flow a bit and give you a chance to swap boxes over with less spillage. I found pulling the lock shield away as soon as it was released from the radiator and putting it in a large plastic bowl, then trying to get the bowl under the water coming out of the radiator was a fairly effective way of getting the majority of the water out. It is absolutely filthy and can potentially stain white emulsion, if any gets on the wall try to get it off with a damp cloth as quickly as you can. Once you’ve got the radiator off the wall, I found fashioning a support stand from 2 plastic garden armchairs worked pretty well, I put the hose nozzle in all of the openings in the radiator in turn and that took pretty much all the gunge out. This is very messy, so old clothes and overalls only.
Good luck, I found it made a massive difference to the performance of my system & you might find it worthwhile just to drain the whole thing and do all the radiators one after the other. Took me about half a day for a 4 bedroom house.
Good luck, I found it made a massive difference to the performance of my system & you might find it worthwhile just to drain the whole thing and do all the radiators one after the other. Took me about half a day for a 4 bedroom house.
OutInTheShed said:
That rad, possibly the TRV is turning off before the whole rad has heated, because the rd warms the TRV too much?
No the water is still going through it, the TRV pretty much never triggers as we leave it open as it's the coldest room, the problems have only become noticeable the last few months too. The noise has been there for longer though, almost sounds like bits of iron filings getting pumped round with water and air, doesn't happen on any other radiators. Have bled the radiator and there's no air in it that I can tell.Guess it's the age old thing of money vs time, it might be worth just paying someone who knows what they're doing rather than me spending a whole weekend working out what's going on and making a fecking mess!
I’ve always done a system drain down every few years we’ve been in the house for 30 plus years and until the last couple of years all the rads were the originals (so 42 years old but they’ve all been replaced now)
However I have installed a lowest point drain valve outside of the house on both flow and return pipes and that makes a big difference to the ability to flush everything out.
I’ve removed the rads (when empty) and then flushed them out with a mains fed hose and tickled them with a rubber mallet as they are flushed in the garden - always worked very well - system as a result in fairly clean.
Other things that can help is opening all the lockshield valves fully and then with the boiler off but the pump on maximum speed go round opening a single rad at a time so each rad gets a really good flow thro it before the drain down
Going to replace the boiler this year and the gas man wants to do a power flush it will be interesting to see what the power flush chucks out because the magnetic filter unit doesn’t pick up much and I check it every 3 months.
However I have installed a lowest point drain valve outside of the house on both flow and return pipes and that makes a big difference to the ability to flush everything out.
I’ve removed the rads (when empty) and then flushed them out with a mains fed hose and tickled them with a rubber mallet as they are flushed in the garden - always worked very well - system as a result in fairly clean.
Other things that can help is opening all the lockshield valves fully and then with the boiler off but the pump on maximum speed go round opening a single rad at a time so each rad gets a really good flow thro it before the drain down
Going to replace the boiler this year and the gas man wants to do a power flush it will be interesting to see what the power flush chucks out because the magnetic filter unit doesn’t pick up much and I check it every 3 months.
B'stard Child said:
I’ve always done a system drain down every few years we’ve been in the house for 30 plus years and until the last couple of years all the rads were the originals (so 42 years old but they’ve all been replaced now)
However I have installed a lowest point drain valve outside of the house on both flow and return pipes and that makes a big difference to the ability to flush everything out.
I’ve removed the rads (when empty) and then flushed them out with a mains fed hose and tickled them with a rubber mallet as they are flushed in the garden - always worked very well - system as a result in fairly clean.
Other things that can help is opening all the lockshield valves fully and then with the boiler off but the pump on maximum speed go round opening a single rad at a time so each rad gets a really good flow thro it before the drain down
Going to replace the boiler this year and the gas man wants to do a power flush it will be interesting to see what the power flush chucks out because the magnetic filter unit doesn’t pick up much and I check it every 3 months.
I did similar in my old house, the system was filthy. I put various chemicals through it before changing the boiler.However I have installed a lowest point drain valve outside of the house on both flow and return pipes and that makes a big difference to the ability to flush everything out.
I’ve removed the rads (when empty) and then flushed them out with a mains fed hose and tickled them with a rubber mallet as they are flushed in the garden - always worked very well - system as a result in fairly clean.
Other things that can help is opening all the lockshield valves fully and then with the boiler off but the pump on maximum speed go round opening a single rad at a time so each rad gets a really good flow thro it before the drain down
Going to replace the boiler this year and the gas man wants to do a power flush it will be interesting to see what the power flush chucks out because the magnetic filter unit doesn’t pick up much and I check it every 3 months.
If that rad is 'in at the bottom', any crud will stay in it, so probably worth whipping it off, if it can be done without making a mess....
ScotHill said:
Never done it before, how do I get this radiator off without spilling gunk everywhere? Need to wash it out as the bottom half is cold so presumably full of gunk.
Hi - I've seen your most recent reply but I still don't understand this setup.You mentioned that the radiator get warm. That means that looking at the picture the inlet is bottom left therefore outlet is top right. If that is the case then the radiator will NEVER get fully hot. Heat rises and so the heat will move up and to the right as enters from the bottom left. This will mean at some point the TRV will shut off.
Take off the TRV head so the valve is unable to shut off and test the heating you may get the radiator hotter.
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