Taking a radiator (towel heater) off help please
 

Hi
I have successfully (thanks to the help received from this group)
removed a (plumbed) towel heater/radiator from its mountings but now I
need to take the actual mountings off!

If you look at:
http://www.biscit.biz/~assami/myson/index.html

....what I have done so far is lifted off the entire heater, leaving
only the pipes emerging from the woodwork, and the valves still
attached to the pipes.

My next challenge is to remove the valves themselves, leaving the bare
pipes, because I need to slip some new woodwork over the pipes.

Presumably I just undo D - anything to watch out for?

What about turning off the water? The heater comes on when EITHER the
CH or HW is on. Is it sufficient to just make sure that neither the CH
or HW is on, or do I also have to do something else like turn off the
CH water supply from its small header tank - NB water for taps comes
from an unvented tank (hot) or direct from the mains (cold).

Thanks for any advice!
Richard

On 24 Oct 2004 05:56:22 -0700, (Richard
Clay) wrote:

Hi
I have successfully (thanks to the help received from this group)
removed a (plumbed) towel heater/radiator from its mountings but now I
need to take the actual mountings off!

If you look at:
http://www.biscit.biz/~assami/myson/index.html

...what I have done so far is lifted off the entire heater, leaving
only the pipes emerging from the woodwork, and the valves still
attached to the pipes.

My next challenge is to remove the valves themselves, leaving the bare
pipes, because I need to slip some new woodwork over the pipes.

Presumably I just undo D - anything to watch out for?

Nothing much apart from the murky contents of your heating system
coming out backed up by fresh water from the filler tank. :-)


What about turning off the water? The heater comes on when EITHER the
CH or HW is on. Is it sufficient to just make sure that neither the CH
or HW is on, or do I also have to do something else like turn off the
CH water supply from its small header tank - NB water for taps comes
from an unvented tank (hot) or direct from the mains (cold).

Yes, you need to turn off the supply in the small tank (tie up the
ball valve if you like) and then drain the system at a drain point
downstairs. You at least need to drain to a level below the radiator
tails in the bathroom.

If the water is mucky, you might as well thoroughly flush the system
while you are at it.

Now you can undo nuts (D) and take off the valves. However, this
will leave nuts (D) on the pipe tails because the pipe is sealed into
the fitting using a small metal ring called an olive.

If you are happy to have a hole in the piece of fitted woodwork large
enough to go over nuts (D) then you are in business.

Otherwise you will have to *carefully* remove said olives followed by
nuts (D). One way to do this is to cut very carefully through the
olives using a junior hacksaw and finally a small screwdriver to prize
them off. You must be careful not to cut into or mangle the pipe or
it won't seal when you replace the olives and fittings.

When you refill, don't forget to add some corrosion inhibitor to the
system. Fernox MB-1 is a good and reasonably priced product for
this.





Thanks for any advice!
Richard

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Richard Clay wrote:

Hi
I have successfully (thanks to the help received from this group)
removed a (plumbed) towel heater/radiator from its mountings but now I
need to take the actual mountings off!

If you look at:
http://www.biscit.biz/~assami/myson/index.html

...what I have done so far is lifted off the entire heater, leaving
only the pipes emerging from the woodwork, and the valves still
attached to the pipes.

My next challenge is to remove the valves themselves, leaving the bare
pipes, because I need to slip some new woodwork over the pipes.

Presumably I just undo D - anything to watch out for?

What about turning off the water? The heater comes on when EITHER the
CH or HW is on. Is it sufficient to just make sure that neither the CH
or HW is on, or do I also have to do something else like turn off the
CH water supply from its small header tank - NB water for taps comes
from an unvented tank (hot) or direct from the mains (cold).

Thanks for any advice!
Richard

Unless you're hoping your insurance company will buy you a new carpet, and a
new ceiling below, you'll need to do a few things in addition to removing
the valves from the pipes!

Although hot water is only *pumped* through the rad when the system is
running, the pipes are full of water all the time. If you just take the
valves off, the contents of your little header tank will flow out first -
followed by fresh water which comes in to replenish it when its ball valve
opens. You will thus have an endless flood!

You will have to drain enough of the system to stop this happening - and
refill it when you've finished.

First, tie off the ball valve on the header tank - or turn off the tap on
its mains feed pipe if there is one. If you can, block off the system feed
pipe (at the bottom of the header tank, below the water line) and the
up-and-over vent pipe with corks. Also turn off both valves on all upstairs
radiators - noting how many turns each lockshield requires to close it.

When you've done all that, put a container under each valve in turn (from
your removed radiator) and gently open the valve. Drain both pipes in this
way until no more comes out. Then - and only then - can you remove the
valves from the pipes. Note that the olives and backnuts will remain on the
pipes - so whatever you're going to slip over them will have to have big
enough holes to go over the nuts. [I would strongly recommend *not*
disturbing the olives].

If your system has inhibitor in it - which hopefully it has - pour the water
which you drained out back into the header tank.

After re-fitting the radiator valves, remove the corks, untie the ballvalve,
open the other radiator valves to their original positions - and bleed the
system.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
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