Cold towel rail

morg_monster

Hi sorry just wanted to check one more thing. Today came home and played around with the lockshield valve. I took it apart entirely, this was the result



Sorry for the size. So the parts are laid out in the order they came off, the cap, the head both screwed off and then this nut thing (blue arrow) came off with a spanner. The concerning thing is that I then screwed out the part with the red arrow completely, with no ill effects. Shouldn't water have come out or something? (the TRV pin was out at this point, and heating on). Also, the red arrow thing screwed out clockwise rather than anti... is that supposed to happen?

Anyway I'm guessing this points to a blockage somewhere around the LSV end? I think I'm probably at the limit of my teeny skills now!!

keystone

morg_monster wrote: »

Sorry for the size. So the parts are laid out in the order they came off, the cap, the head both screwed off and then this nut thing (blue arrow) came off with a spanner.

This should be splined like the head of the valve with the red arrow so that they fit snugly. If the "nut thing's splining has been stripped thats why the valve don't work.

The concerning thing is that I then screwed out the part with the red arrow completely, with no ill effects.

Does that mean that water now flows through the valve?

Shouldn't water have come out or something?

No

Also, the red arrow thing screwed out clockwise rather than anti... is that supposed to happen?

I would expect it to be anti-clock but it might be of foreign manufacture. Can't tell from here.

Cheers

keystone

Sorry - when you say you screwed it out do you mean you completely removed the valve gear from the body? In which case it would come out opposite hand to normal operation and in that case yes you should have got a lot of water. Potentially a duff valve methinks or a blockage in the rail itself.

Cheers

jrrowleyws

I've got a couple of valves like that and they are awful and get stuck (open or shut) and they take quite a bit of work to make them open or close (hence always open now).

How much does it turn? That bit sticking out is the valve head (look at the large metal cylinder and you will see it fits inside the star shape and is what gets turned). When mine were stuck they turned ~1/8 - 1/4 of a turn. Just be careful as they can leak if you give it too much of a turn.

My solution would be to replace the valves, you can just do the insides so you dont need to remove the whole valve assembily providing you can find similar ones. I'd ditch the TRV on a small bathroom towel radiator too (look bad and seem to give more hassle than normal valves, dont know if thats because of where it sits so more cack gets to it rather than sitting in the bottom of the radiator).

morg_monster

Yep screwed the red arrow thing out completely and held it in my hand for a minute, poked my finger around, then put it back in. Just a drop of residual water came out, nothing more.

the "nut thing" screws around the body of the red arrow thing, not the head. The covering cap has a "splined" bit around the small hole you can see, that fits into the head of the red arrow thing, and means you can actually turn the red arrow thing with the cap, so I probably didn't have to take it apart to open the valve after all.

anyway at least I know what the problem is now...
Thanks once again!!