On 19/12/2012 17:54, Roger Mills wrote:
On 19/12/2012 16:33, BartC wrote:
Tried to remove a radiator for flushing, but the nuts attaching it to
the valves are encrusted in several layers of paint.

Chipped some off but wouldn't budge (not without it breaking something).
(And I think I turned them the right way..)

Any ideas on how to free them up? Almost resigned to just replacing the
radiator and the valves as well, but I don't want the bother of draining
down the system.


You only *think* you turned them the right way? Check your thoughts
against newshound's reply!

Once have have made sure that you really know the *right* way to turn
them, you will need a spanner with a long handle in order to get
sufficient leverage. Make sure that the spanner is a tight fit, because
you don't want it to slip under load. But if that's *all* you do, you'll
find that the valve will also rotate, and will bend - or even break -
the copper pipe, with undesirable consequences. So you need to hold the
valve with something else, to stop that happening. I sometimes grip the
body of the valve with a Mole Wrench, applied from above, so that the
stem of the valve goes inside the wrench (but isn't gripped by it). I

The fun party trick is when you do all that, and the mounting lugs on
the back of the rad break away from the rad and the top of the thing
then falls away from the wall under leverage!

use tape or rag on the valve body before applying the wrench, to avoid
damaging the chrome. It sometimes helps to have two people if possible -
one holding the valve and the other turning the nut.

And a leg pushed against the rad if you are levering the top "out"

--
Cheers,

John.

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