In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Peter Weilbacher wrote:

Hi all,

before calling up a plumber I thought that I might give it a try here.

Two of my radiators are leaking through the thread of the opening at
the top. I don't know what this type is called so I put up a picture
at

http://mysite.freeserve.com/weilbacher/DCP03563.JPG [34kiB]

I thought I could open it, smear some grease or some special glue on
the thread and then close it again to seal the leak. The question is
what type of stuff do I use and where do I get it? The guy at the
small local DIY store didn't have a clue. The next bigger one is
Homebase and there usually nobody has a clue -- in which department
would I look there?

Perhaps someone here has a hint how to open it without getting the
whole room wet. It is a bit difficult to get a bucket between the
radiator and the wall...

Presumably there are 4 of these threaded bosses on the radiator - with
radiator valves and pipe connections on the bottom ones. The top ones will
have a blanking plug one side and a bleed screw on the other side.

If you turn off both radiator valves **, you can slacken or remove the upper
plugs with very little spillage of water - but use some old towels anyway in
case any nasty black gunge comes out. Once you have removed the plugs, clean
up the threads with a wire brush, wind a fews turns of PTFE tape (obtainable
from a plumbers merchant) round the threads, and screw them back in. This
should fix the leaks. If it doesn't, take them out again, remove the
shredded PTFE and smear some Plumbers Mait on instead.

** One of these will be a lockshield valve for which you will need a spanner
or pair of pliers. If the system has been balanced, this may be only partly
open. Count the number of turns required to close it, so that you can
restore it to the same position.

--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is Black Hole!

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:11:23 -0000, "Set Square"
wrote:

Presumably there are 4 of these threaded bosses on the radiator - with
radiator valves and pipe connections on the bottom ones. The top ones will
have a blanking plug one side and a bleed screw on the other side.

I second that opinion and the advice given.

One thing you might want to be cautious about is that these leaks
appear to be quite old from the stain marks. That may or may not
represent a problem.

But be aware that if the CH system is quite old then you might find
that the radiators themselves might start perforating. If that happens
you'll need to be nice to Santa and hope he can get a new radiator
down the chimney.....

PoP

On 9 Dec 2003 08:22:09 GMT, "Peter Weilbacher"
wrote:


I thought I could open it, smear some grease or some special glue on the
thread and then close it again to seal the leak. The question is what
type of stuff do I use and where do I get it? The guy at the small local
DIY store didn't have a clue.

Boss White (and hemp thread) will do the trick. It's less than £1 per
tub at B&Q.

sPoNiX

PoP wrote:
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:11:23 -0000, "Set Square"
wrote:

Presumably there are 4 of these threaded bosses on the radiator -
with radiator valves and pipe connections on the bottom ones. The
top ones will have a blanking plug one side and a bleed screw on the
other side.

I second that opinion and the advice given.

One thing you might want to be cautious about is that these leaks
appear to be quite old from the stain marks. That may or may not
represent a problem.

But be aware that if the CH system is quite old then you might find
that the radiators themselves might start perforating. If that happens
you'll need to be nice to Santa and hope he can get a new radiator
down the chimney.....

PoP

Yup, been there. I had a rad that looked like that. When taken off the wall
the spot welds at the back where the panels are joined together were all
rusty too.... Not worth repairing. New one saved me the hassle of painting
the old one though

BillR wrote:

PoP wrote:

But be aware that if the CH system is quite old then you might find
that the radiators themselves might start perforating. If that happens
you'll need to be nice to Santa and hope he can get a new radiator
down the chimney.....

Yup, been there. I had a rad that looked like that. When taken off the wall
the spot welds at the back where the panels are joined together were all
rusty too.... Not worth repairing. New one saved me the hassle of painting
the old one though

Thanks all for the friendly advice. I will try with the tape first,
before I take a more radical approach. The radiator itself doesn't look
that old...
--
Cheers,
Peter.

Peter Weilbacher wrote:

before calling up a plumber I thought that I might give it a try here.

Two of my radiators are leaking through the thread of the opening at the
top. I don't know what this type is called so I put up a picture at

http://mysite.freeserve.com/weilbacher/DCP03563.JPG [34kiB]

I thought I could open it, smear some grease or some special glue on the
thread and then close it again to seal the leak. The question is what
type of stuff do I use and where do I get it? The guy at the small local
DIY store didn't have a clue. The next bigger one is Homebase and there
usually nobody has a clue -- in which department would I look there?

Perhaps someone here has a hint how to open it without getting the whole
room wet. It is a bit difficult to get a bucket between the radiator and
the wall...

Perhaps it is interesting for somebody else to know that none of the
advice given here has worked for me. Over the last month I used
- PTFE tape
- Plumber's Mait
- Boss White + hemp
- Similar stuff I got in Germany + hemp
and nothing worked. Plumber's Mait was the best, but still the radiators
started leaking through the same opening within one week. This is
probably my fault in that I handled the stuff incorrectly.

My solution was to put two component epoxy resin on the thread to really
glue the connection. This has been stable for over two weeks now and the
pressure of the system is constant since then (if I do not let the
boiler switch itself off overnight, but that's a different story).

The caveat of course is that I really have to buy a new radiator if this
starts leaking again, because I think that I cannot reopen this
connection again to fix it then...
--
Best wishes,
Peter.

Perhaps it is interesting for somebody else to know that none of the
advice given here has worked for me. Over the last month I used
- PTFE tape
- Plumber's Mait
- Boss White + hemp
- Similar stuff I got in Germany + hemp
and nothing worked. Plumber's Mait was the best, but still the radiators
started leaking through the same opening within one week. This is
probably my fault in that I handled the stuff incorrectly.

My solution was to put two component epoxy resin on the thread to really
glue the connection. This has been stable for over two weeks now and the
pressure of the system is constant since then (if I do not let the
boiler switch itself off overnight, but that's a different story).

The caveat of course is that I really have to buy a new radiator if this
starts leaking again, because I think that I cannot reopen this
connection again to fix it then...

It does of course depend on how old the rads are and whether they were
any good to start with, not really the fault of the PTFE etc.. if the
thread was never going to seal from the day it left the factory.
It also may not be the fault of the thread as it could be corroding
from the inside.
If it was that bad I would have just changed the rad.


SJW