On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 14:16:18 +0000 (UTC), John wrote:

I have removed a radiator for decorating purposes and one of the valves (not
TRV) leaks ever so slightly, (one drip every 10mins or so). I have bodged
something up from my box of bits to screw onto the valve, but is there
anything commercially available? I have in the past used a washing machine
hose to connect the two valves together but these valves are too far apart.
I asked at my local plumbers merchant and they looked at me like I had got
two heads!!! Mind you it was 12.15 on Saturday afternoon and I was probably
keeping them from the pub!

It rather depends on the actual design of the connection. Some have a
15mm/half inch spigot and use an olive and compression nut for a seal,
others use a shaped 'ball and cup' union or gland arrangement. Telling
which is which is probably (but unfortunately not always) easiest by
looking at the size of the nut that is on the radiator side of the
valve, IYSWIM. If it's about the same size as the compression nut on the
'incoming' side of the valve, then chances are it's a compression type
of seal. If it's much larger, say for a 22mm compression fitting, then
it's more likely to be a union type of seating.

I've had experience of both. The compression type is relatively easy to
deal with. A couple of inches of 15mm pipe with soldered stop end, then
a spare compression nut off a compression fitting and a spare olive, it
works a treat - I keep a couple ready made in the workshop for when I'm
decorating.

If it's the larger union seal, it's possible to get a relatively shallow
depth brass screw-on stop end, with a rubber seating bush in the bottom.
If you can't track one of those down, I use a 22mm screwed stop end with
some ptfe tape wound around the threads to get a seal.


--
wanderer at tesco dot net