How to drain down Rads with no drain cock?

[beefcake01uk]

Hi, im changing a rad in our hall way and need to drain the system down, but i cant find any drain cocks on any other rads. Whats the best way to go about this? Thanks

 

[Rydell]

Hi Beefy Look for the smallest rad on ground floor and shut down both rad valves . Carefully undo the union connections to the valves and pick up the rad holding fingers over rad connections. Take out and let the water go somewhere in drain or on a flower bed! Then make up a connection to one of the rad valves and connect a hose to run outside. Open up rad valve and drain down to that level. There you go sorted!

 

[migoplumber]

that sounds far too simple rydell, if i done that, no doubt there would a trail of carpet staining black sludge from where the radiator was to the flowerbed!!

beefcake in your boiler, there will be a pressure relief valve, you can use that to release sytem pressure and if the boiler is below level of radiator you want to change it will drain to that level, by opening the air vents 1 at a time from the highest rad down. the relief valve may pass pressure afterwards but a couple of clicks generally helps it reseat.

the best way would be to install a drain valve at lowest level, pull up a floorboard, relieve pressure, cut pipe install a compression t in the pipework with a long legged drain off in centre.

you do have to be gas registered to touch the relief valve

good luck
shaun

 

[REDSAW]

??????what?? not quite.

anyhow you dont need to drain down your system to change the rad.....

shut of your ls and tr valve,
put a tupperware under one rad union,
loosen union nut till water drips out and fills tup-bowl - (you may need a bucket handy to chuck it into untill the rad is emptied).
releasing bleed valve helps exchange,
when rad has drained undo unions compleatly and lift of rad then replace.

if you want to drain down system still.
connect washing machine hose to one of the valves, if it is not long enough to vacate the water outside then cut the end insert 15mm tube and secure with jubilee clip.

 

[stevetheplumber]

the real easy way is to use a selfcut washing machine valve on the pipe below a rad this drills a small hole in the pipe as you fit it once drained you cut the pipe where the hole is and fit a drain cock either soldered of compression ive actually seen a self cut drain cock in a merchants recedntly but feel its a bit to ugly to leave on the pipe

 

[buffy27]

Hi, im changing a rad in our hall way and need to drain the system down, but i cant find any drain cocks on any other rads. Whats the best way to go about this? Thanks

u only need to drain rad if its like for like swap. u only need to drain system if your changing pipe work or rad valves.

 

[beefcake01uk]

Yes sorry forgot to say that, i need to change the pipework slightly as the new rad is a bit bigger than old one. Plus i cant get under the floor boards as wooden floor is down, and i dont want it lifting. Thanks

 

[Rydell]

Beefy Change the rad for a smaller one and use rad extentions to make up the difference. 🙂

 

[dontknowitall]

Can't see anyone's suggested it above, but often there's a drain cock in the boiler itself (or if there's an Aga or Rayburn it might be near that). Failing that, possibly in a tiny cupboard near an outside door? Or near the house's main stopcock? Then again, a radiator might have been moved in the past and the pipes cut below the floor with a drain cock added, especially if this was near an outside door.

While it's not unusual I like to think that most people who put in a central heating system will fit a drain cock somewhere, even if you can't find it easily.

A rash suggestion would be to whack a screw into a downstairs pipe with a hammer ...!! That would take care of draining .... but cleaning up again could take a while!!

A while back I had trouble with a radiator valve constantly dripping after removing the radiator so I temporarily fitted a service valve to it (it was all in 15mm). If you do this you could put a small piece of copper tube on that, then attach a hose with a jubilee clip.

Often in plumbing there's no ideal way to fix things and some lateral thinking is required. Quite a few suggestions above and if was me I'd pick the one where I felt confident.

Tupperware and buckets?? Bit messy for me but I have a wet vacuum cleaner and a towel to catch drips. Turn off radiator, suck the water out of the bleed valve for a while and make sure it's not filling again. Then loosen a valve connection and suck water out there. Tastes a bit yucky and turns my teeth black ....

 

[Rydell]

Tupperware and buckets?? Bit messy for me but I have a wet vacuum cleaner and a towel to catch drips. Turn off radiator, suck the water out of the bleed valve for a while and make sure it's not filling again. Then loosen a valve connection and suck water out there. Tastes a bit yucky and turns my teeth black ....

😱
Blimly.....

 

[leakylea]

that sounds far too simple rydell, if i done that, no doubt there would a trail of carpet staining black sludge from where the radiator was to the flowerbed!!

beefcake in your boiler, there will be a pressure relief valve, you can use that to release sytem pressure and if the boiler is below level of radiator you want to change it will drain to that level, by opening the air vents 1 at a time from the highest rad down. the relief valve may pass pressure afterwards but a couple of clicks generally helps it reseat.

the best way would be to install a drain valve at lowest level, pull up a floorboard, relieve pressure, cut pipe install a compression t in the pipework with a long legged drain off in centre.

you do have to be gas registered to touch the relief valve

good luck
shaun

i,m not sure we should be advocating using the prv to drain system .even if its what is done
and it is not usual to assume that your boiler will have a prv
using a prv will require works within the boiler, if you don,t know how tom drain a rad then don,t put your hands in a boiler

 

[REDSAW]

e dont like gettin his hands wet.

if you do it carefully you wont spill a drop. and you will be in controll of how it comes out.

 

[migoplumber]

steve your idea is the best yet, i shall put it in me book of how to make my life easier, cheers.

shaun

 

[stevetheplumber]

steve your idea is the best yet, i shall put it in me book of how to make my life easier, cheers.

shaun

another good tip is when removing a syphon from a cysten use the hose of the u guage to syphon the water out into the pan

and one more when changing electrical components in particlar threway valves cut the wires in the junction box leaving just enough to see the colors then you can ramove and replace each wire seperately and never mix up what goes where

anyone else got little things they do to make life easy?

 

[Rydell]

another good tip is when removing a syphon from a cysten use the hose of the u guage to syphon the water out into the pan

Or undo the ball and use a sponge to remove last drop of water from the cistern! Easy!

 

[justlead1]

Hi. Turn of rad,use key to undo air vent, control spillage, unscrew air vent or plug. Screw in DOC, connect hose, open valves to rad. I some cases with unions loose the rad will lift enough to turn down off brackets through 90 degrees. Good Luck

 

[dontknowitall]

Using a wet vacuum empties the cistern in about a minute.

 

[leakylea]

a drain of cock on the overflow outlet of a wc cistern that is having a self overflowing syphon installed will clear a cistern in less than a minute

 

[Rydell]

Using a wet vacuum empties the cistern in about a minute.

🙁 I have only got a 'Henry' thats not a wet one!

 

[buffy27]

Using a wet vacuum empties the cistern in about a minute.

wet vacs are some job.must get one myself,something tidy,what u recomend

 

[dontknowitall]

I got mine from Jewsons - £60. I priced it into 6 jobs (expecting it to break after say 10 goes). Lasted nearly a year now with loads of use.

PS - it's powerful enough for the hose to "hang on" to a pipe connection while sucking which means I can pop out to get something from the van or prepare some tools where I'm working. Means I don't have to sit over the job until the radiator is empty.

 

[Rydell]

what u recomend

Albert - Brother of Henry 😉

 

[kwakerdude911]

yeah close both valves to rad - loosen bracket and colllect the water form rad - may need to bleed it for last bit of water (like when u put a finger over a straw full of water u need air to let water out)
then fit new rad- if needs pipe work changed just solder extra pipe needed and bend accordingly - assuming u know how to use a pipe bender
job done