Removing radiator with TRV & 5p trick - how?

JustAnotherSaver

We need to remove a radiator which has a TRV on in order to decorate. I'd like to check i've got the process correct.

I removed one at the turn of the year but it resulted in me doing it wrong & landed me with an £80 call out charge for a plumber. Something i'd like to not be repeating, but i can't remember how it's supposed to be done - hence me wanting to check. Is it...

(try & avoid jargon, it'll probably be apparent that you'll end up losing me lol)

1. Screw down both sides clockwise.
2. Open up the bleed point at the top
3. Undo the bottom left side & allow to drain in to a suitable container until no longer flows.
5. Put blanking cap on the bit that sticks up through the ground
6. Take TRV head off, insert 5p with tape on the pin & rescrew on TRV head. (i know there's caps for this, but we don't have ours).
7. Disconnect this (TRV) side from radiator & allow to drain into container
8. Once drained, blank this side off also.
9. Remove radiator.


I can't help but feel i've either got things wrong or i'm missing something.

When i did it last time, water was gushing all over the floor & i couldn't stop it. I also believe i missed something out & the water wouldn't stop filling the container. I can't remember what i forgot to do now though.

Many thanks in advance.

SGM1

Why are you taking the TRV head off if you just want to remove rad? Turn both sides off, drain rad and just remove it

JustAnotherSaver

Won't water still come out if the temperature drops enough? I'm sure I read & was also told something on those lines.

So what you're saying -

Turn both sides fully down
Open bleed valve up top
Disconnect left side & drain then cap off
Repeat this on TRV side
Remove rad

Is that the process?

Ruski

If you're sure it won't drop below 5 degrees in the room then that's the process. If you want to be double sure, either beg/borrow a decorators cap, or buy blanking nuts and rubber washers to close off the open ends of the valves.




HTH


Russ

Biggles

Buy a radiator paint roller for about £4 and save yourself the trouble. No-one's going to look and see if the whole wall's been painted behind it.

When I decorated my first house (and was keen to 'do it right'), I found that I could loosen the nuts holding the pipes to the radiator, lift the rad off its support and swivel it down to lay horizontally, then tightening up the nuts again. The rad carried on working, I painted (or papered) behind, and then reversed the process. It won't work everywhere, it depends if you can lift them of their wall supports while the pipework is still connected.

JustAnotherSaver

Ruski wrote: »

If you're sure it won't drop below 5 degrees in the room then that's the process. If you want to be double sure, either beg/borrow a decorators cap, or buy blanking nuts and rubber washers to close off the open ends of the valves.

I have some caps for the ends so should be ok there.

I hope it doesn't drop below 5c :rotfl:Could be messy if it does.

Incidentally, what is the 5p trick actually for? I know it keeps that pin pressed down, but why would you use this then if you wouldn't use it for what i'm going to be doing?

Biggles wrote: »

Buy a radiator paint roller for about £4 and save yourself the trouble. No-one's going to look and see if the whole wall's been painted behind it.

When I decorated my first house (and was keen to 'do it right'), I found that I could loosen the nuts holding the pipes to the radiator, lift the rad off its support and swivel it down to lay horizontally, then tightening up the nuts again. The rad carried on working, I painted (or papered) behind, and then reversed the process. It won't work everywhere, it depends if you can lift them of their wall supports while the pipework is still connected.

We're not painting the walls, we're papering them, so the roller is no good (plus i have one anyway).

I wouldn't fancy flopping the rad down. I burst the piping without much effort. The plumber said it's because the piping we have in our setup is 10mm which he says is pretty crap really & 15mm (or was it 12mm?) is much better. He said he's been called out before to sort leaks due to people hitting the piping while hoovering.

So i'd rather avoid risking putting bends/splits in again

Biggles

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

We're not painting the walls, we're papering them, so the roller is no good (plus i have one anyway).

Just as easy. Cut the paper to go a couple of inches behind the radiator above and on each side, paste it well and smooth it down with something handy. Like, say, ooh, maybe a radiator paint roller? It's all very accessible and, like I said before, nobody's going to look anyway.

JustAnotherSaver

True but there is some very horrendous very loose wallpaper behind there right now. For the sake of removing the rad id prefer it done 'right'.

JustAnotherSaver

Oh dear.

Today was the day to tackle it & i'm £80 lighter...AGAIN.

Started off, closed off the non TRV valve as has been said. What happens? Starts to weep. Yes i turned it clockwise.

All confidence gone & doubt now set in.

Start to undo & 10mm pipe bends slightly. Having been there before, again confidence knocked.

Go to undo TRV side but can't get it undone. The nut is smack up against the skirting real tight & i'm too worried about being rough with it as it seems to bend so easily.

Rather than risk creating a mess, we have to bite the bullet & call a guy out again.

He said it shouldn't have been weeping on the left side & the approach i was taking was correct. He just said it needed tightening/nipping up. I was tightening the wrong spot though. There's that little 'post' that sticks up that your cap fits into which i was tightening, but he tightened up the base of this.

Came down to lack of knowledge.

He said the radiator was not correct for the location. It shouldn't come way below the skirting & shouldn't be up against the skirting like that (the valves/nuts were up close actually touching the skirting & the base of the radiator was well below the top of the skirting which is quite high).

So he just removed it. Problem is, he went downstairs to drain off at another point & as i'm draining off, it's escaping from the radiator as i'm struggling to get a container under there. The water was down the floorboards.

Next minute i'm getting shouted at from downstairs ..... the water has leaked through & the plastered ceiling below is dripping. Not gushing but there's a new wet patch & it's dripping. So we stopped that.

Got another radiator fitted while he was out that i wasn't confident in fitting since the pipe didn't line up too well & i was scared of bending it further - no extra charge.

He says it'd be advisable to buy a radiator to fit the location. Same width, but shorter so it's not well below the skirting.

Problem is, looking at the face of the radiator, it measures 1750mm. Looking in the screwfix catalogue it lists 1600mm or 1800mm.

So i measured the fins at the rear to see if this was how you measured. This didn't help either.