plumber help

[strapping young lad]

the rad in our lounge has gone titsup

no heat whatsoever but ive bled it and there is no air (only a wet floor :) )

each rad has its own thermostat (twisty thing) and my old man reckons ours has given up the ghost.

anyone here know if this is right and if so how much of a pain to replace  (i know i have to drain the system)

should i shut off all other thermostats before i empty the rad out so i dont lose too much water or should i drain the whole lot out....

ive tried to ring the plumber who installed it but hes away until 10th jan

HELP!

anyone here who is handy with waterworks in the north west ;)

d

[rollazuki]

The thermostatic bit usually unscrews from the top of the valve, revealling an ickle valve which should be sprung upwards(ie, will push down)
it may be the thermostat bit(the top) or the valve bit(the bottom) that has failed. If youre lucky, itll be the top bit, just buy another valve, leave the plumbing fitting in the box, and just screw the new top on.
Rolla.

[Mudlark]

Take the radiator off the wall, if you're lucky you should be able to do this without draining the system just by turning off the valves.

Once you have the rad off drain it out then flush it with a hose to get all the shi....... black stuff out. Once the water runs clean replace it and bleed it and with luck you'll have a nice warm working radiator again.



Alternately you can buy new valves and replace them on both ends before resorting to the above (bit more expensive and time consuming)


HTH

[landyman37]

the rad in our lounge has gone titsup

no heat whatsoever but ive bled it and there is no air (only a wet floor :) )

each rad has its own thermostat (twisty thing) and my old man reckons ours has given up the ghost.

anyone here know if this is right and if so how much of a pain to replace  (i know i have to drain the system)

should i shut off all other thermostats before i empty the rad out so i dont lose too much water or should i drain the whole lot out....

ive tried to ring the plumber who installed it but hes away until 10th jan

HELP!

anyone here who is handy with waterworks in the north west ;)

d

when we had the gas out to check ours the valve had stuck remove the top half  of the thermo valve there is a small tit sticking up thin nose pliers give it a tug and should work had to flush our system and put some inhibiter in full of black gunge local diy store for the flush and inhibiter.

phil

[waveydavey]

Move the valves; one end is easy, the other is as described take off the thermostat bit and look how to move it.
If you do them seperatly and feel that part of the Rad you may nail where where the problem is. With the thermostat end you may need to gag it for a bit.

If that moves hot water into the rad then you need to flush the, X300 if I remember right, B&Q was the cheapest I found.

If moving the valves doesn't work then try closing off a couple of other rads for a while to force the water that way. If that works then it may still need a flush, possibly look at the pump, possibly both.

[strapping young lad]

all other rads are piping hot so the pump bit should beok... so it could be either a stuck bit in the valve or bunged up rad hmm?

[minty]

thay are dead easy to refit new ends on just a bit messy better off draining systerm i found, 1hr to drain .........10 mins to refit x2 new ends, another 1hr bleeding no problems.   and best of all thay compressed nuts so no soildering :lol:  

[strapping young lad]

ok. so let me get this straight... if i find that opening the thermostat doesnt make a difference... to drain the whole system, remove the offending thermostat then refit new one?

or would you remove the whole rad then empty it out outside then refit?

[waveydavey]

Doesn't really matter; if you have the valves off giving it a flush can't hurt. In fact if you drain the system you will need to put new inhibitor in anyway so it would not hurt to flush the full system.

[strapping young lad]

i have a cold water tap which is underneath the combi boiler which i was told to turn on briefly if the water pressure fell..

now after i emtpy the water out of the rads.. is this the tap i use to refill the system?

bloody hell i feel like a numpty :(

[Range Rover Blues]

Yes that sounds right, a combi boiler works under pressure, although strictly speaking the cold waterconection should be left diconnected or the tap handle removed, something about water bylaws :roll:

Anyway, the boiler will malfunction if you don't have enough pressure in it.  It may also be full of treated water, be careful.

[waveydavey]

In theory the filling loop should be disconnected and the ends capped when not in use, this is so that it the mains water pressure fails the pressurised system cannot contaminate the mains supply. In reality nobody ever does, there are two valves there anyway.

If you are ona  combi the full flush is easy; open the drain, put a hose on to outside if you need to then open the filling line. Try and balance the drain so that with teh fill full open you have enough to run the boiler and hence the pump, do that for a while until the drain clears.

The easiest way to retreat teh system is to get a single dose that you squirt into one on the rads through the bleeding hole, done with a mastic gun.

[strapping young lad]

erm... the drain if im right is the lowest point of the system (water likes gravity i think :) and put in a hosepipe into that then open it?

what ive done before is once thats going, to open the bleed valves on all other rads to ensure the water has equal air pressure to make it go out quicker (in the meantime ive switched off the boiler.)