Hello

This may seem like rather daft question but how on earth does one indeed
operate this device?

Similar in appearance to http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/1847-134

I tried to turn the square bit, nothing, then turned the collar thing
underneath the square bit, got a bit of a dribble but not much, after a
few more turns I noticed water emerging from underneath the collar and
in fear of water emerging at considerable speed in directions other than
my original intention and the swift administration of the mother of all
bollockings by the wife I decided it best to turn the collar the other
way and ask first.

I can only assume something needs to be attached to it.

I have looked in the FAQ and googled myself dizzy but seems unable to
find any resources describing the correct operation of this mind
boggling device.

//J

Jan Larsen wrote:

This may seem like rather daft question but how on earth does one indeed
operate this device?

Similar in appearance to http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/1847-134

I tried to turn the square bit, nothing, then turned the collar thing
underneath the square bit, got a bit of a dribble but not much, after a
few more turns I noticed water emerging from underneath the collar and
in fear of water emerging at considerable speed in directions other than
my original intention and the swift administration of the mother of all
bollockings by the wife I decided it best to turn the collar the other
way and ask first.

I can only assume something needs to be attached to it.

A sponge or rag held up to it will protect the wall and carpet if you
are just bleeding a radiator vent. Leave the spanner on the screw so
you can close it without removing the rag, when water starts to come
through.

IIRC you need to turn the pump off to do this. Or was it have the pump
running. You get two choices.

If you are draining a radiator or something you obviously need to get a
vessel under it. You might get a length of piping from a plumbers
supplier or even a caravan shop or some such.

Weatherlawyer wrote:

A sponge or rag held up to it will protect the wall and carpet if you
are just bleeding a radiator vent. Leave the spanner on the screw so
you can close it without removing the rag, when water starts to come
through.

IIRC you need to turn the pump off to do this. Or was it have the pump
running. You get two choices.

If you are draining a radiator or something you obviously need to get a
vessel under it. You might get a length of piping from a plumbers
supplier or even a caravan shop or some such.


I want to drain the system completely.

I have a hose attached to the thing but no water comes out of it, just a
slight trickle. the system is open vented so it should not be retaining
a vacuum.

Jan Larsen wrote:

I tried to turn the square bit, nothing, then turned the collar thing
underneath the square bit, got a bit of a dribble but not much, after a
few more turns I noticed water emerging from underneath the collar and
in fear of water emerging at considerable speed in directions other than
my original intention and the swift administration of the mother of all
bollockings by the wife I decided it best to turn the collar the other
way and ask first.

You're doing it right; there's nothing particularly complicated about
it. Presumably yours is jammed internally or something. You certainly
shouldn't need to undo the knurled collar.

David

On Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:43:18 +0100, Jan Larsen wrote:

I want to drain the system completely.

I have a hose attached to the thing but no water comes out of it, just a
slight trickle. the system is open vented so it should not be retaining
a vacuum.

Quite often the washer sticks to the seat of the valve so no water comes
out until you open the valve quite a long way, or worse still it comes off
the little peg that's supposed to hold it onto the moving jumper (which
you're unscrewing) or simply disintegrates, so you can neither get water
to drain freely nor shut the damn thing off fully again.

"Lobster" wrote in message
news
Jan Larsen wrote:

I tried to turn the square bit, nothing, then turned the collar thing
underneath the square bit, got a bit of a dribble but not much, after a
few more turns I noticed water emerging from underneath the collar and in
fear of water emerging at considerable speed in directions other than my
original intention and the swift administration of the mother of all
bollockings by the wife I decided it best to turn the collar the other
way and ask first.

You're doing it right; there's nothing particularly complicated about it.
Presumably yours is jammed internally or something. You certainly
shouldn't need to undo the knurled collar.

David

I would expect that the rubber washer has partially decomposed and is stuck
in
place. There is no completely mess free alternative way - what I try to do
is
get an identical looking drain valve and take apart to understand what gets
stuck,
get one or two similar washers as spares, (ensure you have turned off all
the radiators
at both ends and obviously the feed) and take out the valve bit completely,
with a
wet and dry vacuum cleaner running and an able helper.

Dig out the old washer.

Obviously, there will be increasing amounts of water emerging, so the
machine
may have to be emptied 2 or 3 times. You should be able to hold back the low
pressure
water with a finger and thumb over the outlets whilst helper empties the
machine.

Or you could empty the system in the same way by loosening a connection with
the
vacuum cleaner underneath.

With the old rubber washer, out select a washer that seems to be the best
match
for the mechanicals, possibly about 8 mm diameter with a central hole, and
refit with this.

Maybe fit a complete new drain valve ? - easy if compression !

Hope this helps.

Nick

John Stumbles wrote:

Quite often the washer sticks to the seat of the valve so no water comes
out until you open the valve quite a long way, or worse still it comes off
the little peg that's supposed to hold it onto the moving jumper (which
you're unscrewing) or simply disintegrates, so you can neither get water
to drain freely nor shut the damn thing off fully again.

Yes, you seem to get two different qualites of valves like these - the
expensive ones which are at best adequate but a PITA, and the cheap ones
which are a whole lot worse!

I did a hard piped drain on my system to avoid needing to use these
things - I teed into an existing pipe at a low point, and took another
pipe through wall to an adjacent gully. A decent quality (screwdriver
operated) service valve takes care of the draining. So much easier than
having to tit about with bits of hosepipe.

--
Cheers,

John.

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| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
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In message , John
Rumm writes
John Stumbles wrote:

Quite often the washer sticks to the seat of the valve so no water comes
out until you open the valve quite a long way, or worse still it comes off
the little peg that's supposed to hold it onto the moving jumper (which
you're unscrewing) or simply disintegrates, so you can neither get water
to drain freely nor shut the damn thing off fully again.

Yes, you seem to get two different qualites of valves like these - the
expensive ones which are at best adequate but a PITA, and the cheap
ones which are a whole lot worse!

I did a hard piped drain on my system to avoid needing to use these
things - I teed into an existing pipe at a low point, and took another
pipe through wall to an adjacent gully. A decent quality (screwdriver
operated) service valve takes care of the draining. So much easier than
having to tit about with bits of hosepipe.

I almost did that. But never got around to it. But I did put a tee in at
a low point under the hallway, and then put in an old rad valve to act
as drain valve which was much better.
--
Chris French

John Rumm wrote:
I did a hard piped drain on my system to avoid needing to use these
things - I teed into an existing pipe at a low point, and took another
pipe through wall to an adjacent gully. A decent quality (screwdriver
operated) service valve takes care of the draining. So much easier than
having to tit about with bits of hosepipe.


Yeah thats the kind of thing that was on the system in my old house in
Dennmark, two ballofix valves undeneath the boiler marked "dump" and
"fill", the fill one had a an extra ballofix sticking out on a tee to
squeeze in chemicals like inhibitors and such, the rads had auto vents.
when I swap my boiler that is what I want to have made.

//J