A few problems

marsaday · Oct 6, 2011

Hello

I have just turned on my 3 new attic rads for the first time after doing my own conversion.

I have two problems:

1) The new bathroom towel rail has a leak where the chrome valve bites onto the tail coming from the towel rail. I have tried tightening it up more and more, but the leak is still there. What do i do in this situation. The other side works perfectly.

2) I have used our old dining room rad in the bedroom, but before i put it in i ran a hose pipe through it and got out a lot of crude. However i did this and left the rad connectors in, so the flow was restricted somewhat. Any how the rad is now in and it isnt getting very warm - certainly cooler at the bottom. I am assuming i have a blockage here. Do i just take the rad off and take out the valve tails so i can give it a better clean or should i just use a new radiator ?

I am doing a clean this eve and so will be draining down tomorrow. I want to fix these problems tomorrow obviously.

Thanks

mickie · Oct 6, 2011

are you sure its the chrome pipe going into the valve thats leaking ? or is it a leak above that, where the valve goes into the towel rail ? as you're draining down, take the valve apart, make sure its been made properly, that their isnt anything wrong with it, make sure you've not over tightened the olive and use brass.. inspect to try and work out what you've done wrong..

with the rad i'd try and flush it out, re-fit it, see if its ok, if still not perfect, turn off all other rads bar that one, see if it gets any better, mess around with the system, could also use a sludge remover, if after all that, i'd buy a new one.

or pay someone to power flush it for 2k, or whatever people are charging now..

SimonG · Oct 6, 2011

Did you use paste and or ptfe on the valves?

What size pipework do you have going into the loft to serve the rads and towel rail?

Have you balanced the htg system since adding the rads?

marsaday · Oct 6, 2011

Thanks for replys.

The leak is where the valve connects with the rad tail bit. The nut here is very wet and i know this is the spot where the water is coming through.

I didnt use any ptfe tape on the nut. i didnt think you needed to. However, if you mean did i use tape when i inserted the valve tail body into the rad, then yes i did. There is no leak from this point, it is the point below this.

Can i wrap some tape around the brass olive ? would this stop the leak ?

The boiler is on the top floor where the conversion is and so i have run 15mm for all three rads up here. The rest of the house uses 22mm.

I havent balanced the system as a whole, but instead i have turned down the three rads because they are nearest the boiler. Should i try opening the valve on this rad a bit more do you think ?

marsaday · Oct 6, 2011

Blocked rad is now working. I have opened the valve a lot more - approx 6 turns so is is now 80% open. So i think this has solved that problem.

The leak on the towel rad has stopped it seems, but i wonder if the water is just evaporating away due to it being hot. i will inspect it again when it has cooled down.

Question about balancing. Do i need to rebalance the whole house now that i have added an extra 3 rads onto the system ?

ederz · Oct 6, 2011

The leak may have stopped as the system is warm and the valve has expanded, hiding leaks for the time being. You may have to balance it, see if everywhere gets hot first.

armourer · Oct 6, 2011

While the system is drained tomorrow you might as well cut off the old olive from the towel rad and replace and I would do a complete balance, an extra 3 radiators is enough to throw off the whole system imho.

GasSafeLtd · Oct 7, 2011

Hi. It's always a good idea to wrap some ptfe (although I use gas tape - same thing but thicker and usually yellow) around olives. You'll never get a leak this way.

You can use jointing compounds or products such as lsx, but they're a bit messy and gas tap does the job.

You can try turning off the radiators that don't have a blockage to see if that one now works, indicating that the system is not properly balanced. Trying to flush it out again is not a bad idea failing that.

I've just joined and am happy to give free advice if able as I running a small domestic gas and heating company. Visit me here and give me a call if you like:

Gas Safe London | Gas Safety Certificate London | Gas Safety Checks.

Cheers

marsaday · Oct 7, 2011

All done !

The olive didnt seem to be tight at all and came off. So i used a new one with ptfe tape and it all works fine now.

I took off the rad to clean it out again with a hose pipe and i am now filling up the system this aft.

AWheating · Oct 7, 2011

was it a brass olive? they dont bite down aswell as copper.

the rad problem sounds like a balancing issue, re balance the system and it should work better.

If you have alot of crude it your rad then consider running a chemical cleaner through the system and then add some inhibitor,