Easy drain central heating
 

Having needed to drain my CH system a few times recently (to enable
changing the boiler and converting to a sealed system) I came to realise
just how much I hate those poxy drain valves they normally fit to CH
systems.

You know the things with the little square brass peg sticking out of the
end and a hose connector. Having found a suitable bit of hose and
attached it, draped it through the house (needing to leave a door open
in the soon to be unheated kitchen), managed to unstick the valve where
some monkey has mangled the peg with pliers in the past and then painted
over it, and then found a low enough profile container to stick under
the valve where it is now leaking a mixture of water, sludge and
inhibitor over the carpet I was thinking there ought to be a better way!

I remember seeing a TV program many years ago about designing the
"perfect" hi tech house. One idea they showed stuck in my mind. They
took all the CH and HW drain points into one small utility cupboard and
fed the output of them directly through the wall to a drain outside,
hence making the task of draining much simpler.

So I set about implementing a version of this. I located a suitable pipe
under the radiator in our hall. Measured carefully the location of the
drain on the outside of said wall, and drilled a 16mm hole through so
that it came out just to the side of the gutter drain pipe that was
feeding into the drain. I then cut into the pipe work and inserted a tee
piece, from this to an elbow thence a in-line service valve. From there
into another elbow, through the wall, another elbow and a short length
of pipe pointing straight at the drain.

Works like a charm. To drain the system you just turn the screw on the
valve - no mess, no fuss, no hose. With a sealed heating system it makes
flushing it dead easy as well - you can open the drain valve and turn on
the filling loop. To refill you can close the drain valve very slightly
to create a bit of flow resistance. That then lets you go round bleeding
all of the radiators. When done, turn off the drain valve, go to filling
loop and turn off when the desired pressure is reached.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Easy drain central heating
 

This is exactly what I have planned, when I get a tuit ;)

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

Easy drain central heating
 

On Sat, 27 Mar 2004 20:08:44 +0000, John Rumm wrote:

Having needed to drain my CH system a few times recently (to enable
changing the boiler and converting to a sealed system) I came to realise
just how much I hate those poxy drain valves they normally fit to CH
systems.

You know the things with the little square brass peg sticking out of the
end and a hose connector. Having found a suitable bit of hose and
attached it, draped it through the house (needing to leave a door open
in the soon to be unheated kitchen), managed to unstick the valve where
some monkey has mangled the peg with pliers in the past and then painted
over it, and then found a low enough profile container to stick under
the valve where it is now leaking a mixture of water, sludge and
inhibitor over the carpet I was thinking there ought to be a better way!

I remember seeing a TV program many years ago about designing the
"perfect" hi tech house. One idea they showed stuck in my mind. They
took all the CH and HW drain points into one small utility cupboard and
fed the output of them directly through the wall to a drain outside,
hence making the task of draining much simpler.

So I set about implementing a version of this. I located a suitable pipe
under the radiator in our hall. Measured carefully the location of the
drain on the outside of said wall, and drilled a 16mm hole through so
that it came out just to the side of the gutter drain pipe that was
feeding into the drain. I then cut into the pipe work and inserted a tee
piece, from this to an elbow thence a in-line service valve. From there
into another elbow, through the wall, another elbow and a short length
of pipe pointing straight at the drain.

Works like a charm. To drain the system you just turn the screw on the
valve - no mess, no fuss, no hose. With a sealed heating system it makes
flushing it dead easy as well - you can open the drain valve and turn on
the filling loop. To refill you can close the drain valve very slightly
to create a bit of flow resistance. That then lets you go round bleeding
all of the radiators. When done, turn off the drain valve, go to filling
loop and turn off when the desired pressure is reached.

What you describe is definitely better practice.
You can get drain taps known as 'heavy pattern' these have an extra O-ring
and maybe leak a little less.

The best practice is to have the drain points on both flow and return pipe
work and situated outside over a gully.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

Easy drain central heating
 

In article ,
John Rumm wrote:
You know the things with the little square brass peg sticking out of the
end and a hose connector. Having found a suitable bit of hose and
attached it, draped it through the house (needing to leave a door open
in the soon to be unheated kitchen), managed to unstick the valve where
some monkey has mangled the peg with pliers in the past and then painted
over it, and then found a low enough profile container to stick under
the valve where it is now leaking a mixture of water, sludge and
inhibitor over the carpet I was thinking there ought to be a better way!

You can get ones which have a gland seal - more like a tap - and don't
leak, at at least if in good nick.

--
*Letting a cat out of the bag is easier than putting it back in *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

Easy drain central heating
 

Dave Plowman wrote:

You know the things with the little square brass peg sticking out of the
end and a hose connector. Having found a suitable bit of hose and
attached it, draped it through the house (needing to leave a door open
in the soon to be unheated kitchen), managed to unstick the valve where
some monkey has mangled the peg with pliers in the past and then painted
over it, and then found a low enough profile container to stick under
the valve where it is now leaking a mixture of water, sludge and
inhibitor over the carpet I was thinking there ought to be a better way!


You can get ones which have a gland seal - more like a tap - and don't
leak, at at least if in good nick.

I was aware they are not all as crap as the ones used on my system (just
most), but I would guess that the person who fitted/had fitted the
things in the first place went for the cheapest and nastiest (the fact
the most of the radiators are all different styles and brands might also
suggest there was some economising going on!)

If retro fitting I might as well go for the full monty as outlined since
IIRC the gland seal drain cocks actually cost more than an inline
service valve anyway.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Easy drain central heating
 

"John Rumm" wrote in message
...
Dave Plowman wrote:

You know the things with the little square brass peg sticking out of the
end and a hose connector. Having found a suitable bit of hose and
attached it, draped it through the house (needing to leave a door open
in the soon to be unheated kitchen), managed to unstick the valve where
some monkey has mangled the peg with pliers in the past and then painted
over it, and then found a low enough profile container to stick under
the valve where it is now leaking a mixture of water, sludge and
inhibitor over the carpet I was thinking there ought to be a better way!


You can get ones which have a gland seal - more like a tap - and don't
leak, at at least if in good nick.

I was aware they are not all as crap as the ones used on my system (just
most), but I would guess that the person who fitted/had fitted the
things in the first place went for the cheapest and nastiest (the fact
the most of the radiators are all different styles and brands might also
suggest there was some economising going on!)

If retro fitting I might as well go for the full monty as outlined since
IIRC the gland seal drain cocks actually cost more than an inline
service valve anyway.

Both cost only pennies (well, half a quid-ish) but the traditional drain-off
cock has the advantage that you can turn it off positively whereas the
ball-type service valve has to be carefully set to its off position.