Draining central heating, erm!

[B19GRR]

Hi all,

I'm toying with the idea of replacing all the valves on the rads (10 in total) as most of them are knackered either fully on or off and no amount of persuading the pin with a hammer is helping them unjam.

It's an oil fired boiler so open system so I thought I'd just find the drain cock, stick a hosepipe on and off we go. Erm, there's no sign of a drain cock though. None of the rads have a drain fitted which is a bit of a drag. Is there likely to be one hidden in a very random location or am I just going to have to crack open the valve joint on one rad and do a lot of bucket swapping under it?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Cheers,
Rob

[Jonnas]

Are you sure that there isn't a T which goes through the wall to a drain on the outside? These are often off a radiator feed and can be tricky to spot from outside if it's a bit overgrown.

[blueg33]

We have an oil fired system (pipework circa 1973) and the drain cock is outside next ti the utility room that houses the boiler.

[Spitfire2]

Not an expert but I would hope there will be a drain somewhere.

If there's not, or it can't be found you could probably get rid of the bulk of the water through a bleed valve on the lowest rad (at least a bit easier than draining from the valves close to floor level.

I dare say some experts will have ideas of where to look

[Gingerbread Man]

It wouldn't be the first house to have a drain off missing. Sometimes there Is a drain off outside, have a look around behind plants etc.

If the boilers a floor standing item, these can have it.

Do you have an airing cupboard and is it on the ground floor, is it on that pipework (ignoring the cylinder drain off point)?

If all fails, isolate a rad and quickly wip it off with towels a plenty and lightning thumbs, take outside to drain.
Now depending on the valve end you are presented with, you can either put an outside tap/ hosepipe fitting onto a 3/4" valve and drain via that or if you've a 1/2" fitting, a piece of copper, olive and backnut. Force the hosepipe over a piece of copper and go from there.

[Wings]

^^^this is what i made up, compression fitting on a length of copper pipe, then drain from the last radiator.

[Rickyy]

Do yourself a favour and swap one of the lockshields for one with a drain off!

If you are feeling brave you could always bung the cold feed and vent to create a vacuum in the system and swap the valves that way.

[mattdaniels]

Not sure if this is any help but when we recently had a radiator removed from the kitchen the plumber said he would not need to drain the system. He had some cone shaped "bungs" and went up in to the loft and I gather he stuffed them in to the end of a pipe up there which creates a vacuum in the pipes. He then went in to the kitchen disconnected the rad and drained just the rad water into a bucket.

Edit: sounds like what Ricky is suggesting.

[Gingerbread Man]

A drain off is always useful to have though! Probably find you'll get an airlock and you'd love a drain off to pull it through on.

[B19GRR]

Thanks guys! I should've said the boiler is a wall mounted behemoth, so no pipes coming out of the bottom. The airing cupboard is upstairs. I'll have a nosy to see if there are any tee's off any pipe work leading to useful taps.

Cheers,
Rob

[blueg33]

mattdaniels said:

Not sure if this is any help but when we recently had a radiator removed from the kitchen the plumber said he would not need to drain the system. He had some cone shaped "bungs" and went up in to the loft and I gather he stuffed them in to the end of a pipe up there which creates a vacuum in the pipes. He then went in to the kitchen disconnected the rad and drained just the rad water into a bucket.

Edit: sounds like what Ricky is suggesting.

I have the same plugs. They came from Homebase and work a treat

Here at B&Q DrainEasy

Edited by blueg33 on Thursday 20th October 17:56