radiator leaking? there is bit of rust which i have clared, but seems to be a hole at bottom

wakkaday

it feels like some kind of hole at bottom on radiator near pipes, is there a quick fix to this?
or do i have to get the entire radiator replaced?
could this be responsible for my growing energy bills?

thanks

ThisIsWeird

The rad is junk.

You could try and seal this leak, but you'd only be postponing the inevitable. And the inev could be very wet and messy.

Meanwhile, shut off both rad valves fully, and hopefully it'll stop leaking.

Rads almost always rust from the inside, so the metal surrounding that pinhole leak will likely be very thin.

Are you up for DIYing the replacement? If you can obtain the exact same type and size, then it shouldn't be too hard to do.

On a more serious note, if one rad is rusting from within, then very good chance other rads are doing so too. Worth checking the quality of your rad water - bleed some into a cup, and check its colour - and fit a magnetic filter, and add inhibitor.

grumbler

wakkaday said:

could this be responsible for my growing energy bills?

No. The growing prices are.

wakkaday

ThisIsWeird said:

The rad is junk.

You could try and seal this leak, but you'd only be postponing the inevitable. And the inev could be very wet and messy.

Meanwhile, shut off both rad valves fully, and hopefully it'll stop leaking.

Rads almost always rust from the inside, so the metal surrounding that pinhole leak will likely be very thin.

Are you up for DIYing the replacement? If you can obtain the exact same type and size, then it shouldn't be too hard to do.

On a more serious note, if one rad is rusting from within, then very good chance other rads are doing so too. Worth checking the quality of your rad water - bleed some into a cup, and check its colour - and fit a magnetic filter, and add inhibitor.

Thanks for this very useful. I will order a replacement and Google it , it seems pretty straight forward hopefully I can use the same valves etc 

ThisIsWeird

You should even be able to replace it without having to drain down your whole system.

The existing rad can be drained by slackening the valve-to-rad coupling, and slipping a shallow pan underneath - open a bleed screw to allow air in. You'll soon find out what state the water is in, and whether there's a load of black sludge sitting in the bottom of the rad. This is messy stuff, so take care.

Before you refill the new rad, add a good dose of inhibitor, and - ideally - a magnetic filter on the system return (tho' that will necessitate draining it down!)

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said: The existing rad can be drained by slackening the valve-to-rad coupling, and slipping a shallow pan underneath - open a bleed screw to allow air in. You'll soon find out what state the water is in, and whether there's a load of black sludge sitting in the bottom of the rad. This is messy stuff, so take care.

You can check how much water the radiator contains when looking at the specs for a new radiator - One at random, 1200mm long, 600mm high type 22 holds about 7.2l of water.

A couple of blanking nuts to screw on the tails are handy. Once the tails are blanked off, you can lift the radiator off the wall and carry it outside with risk of dribbling black icky gunk everywhere.

If you are buying radiators from somewhere like Screwfix, you'll probably get a pack of "free" TRV & lockshield - I've not been too impressed with the quality of the tails, Found the threads to be a bit rough and wouldn't seal without some extra work.

plumb1_2

FreeBear said:

If you are buying radiators from somewhere like Screwfix, you'll probably get a pack of "free" TRV & lockshield - I've not been too impressed with the quality of the tails, Found the threads to be a bit rough and wouldn't seal without some extra work.

Don’t use ptfe tape, I use loctite 55

plumb1_2

wakkaday said:

could this be responsible for my growing energy bills?

thanks

Yes if your heating up sludge