changing radiator valve

[cartoon1]

Apologies for newbie questions:

I have a combination boiler (Valliant) CH system. One radiator has valves without caps on them. The guy at the plumbing shop said that I would need to replace the valves as the sizes of the caps in the shop do not fit the ones on the rad.

will I have to drain down the CH system to do this? and if so how? I do not know whether there is a stop c*ck. when I had a plumber in a couple of years ago, I think that he just opened up all the taps and let the cold water drain out of the system (but then again, he got covered in water when he tried opening the combi!)

regards Waqar

[Gav]

erm, the cold water and ch are seperate systems, turn off the boiler, and drain the ch system completely, then do what's needed and then fill it back up and bleed rads, switch on boiler and job sorted! i think i got that in the right order, sure raden will correct me if it's wrong!

[Roger Mills]

It sounds a bit drastic to change perfectly good valves just because they don't have caps on them.

If the 'shop' doesn't have caps which fit, find another one which *does*!

[cartoon1]

thanks all for your replies. I will try another shop! and then I will try and drain the ch system - which I guess will be a case of following one of the pipes from the boiler and looking for a stop c*ck somewhere?

regards all

[Ed Sirett]

The Sealed CH FAQ together with the main FAQ may help you. However with a lot of respect having seen your replies you _probably_ will do better to get in some help. If there are No TRVs then the drain down can be used to add those which is worth while.

Frankly this job seem rather drastic to simply make the valves look neater. The shop is right that there are so many different makers and types of rad valve that caps are not likely to be interchangeable.

[Guy King]

The message from "cartoon1" contains these words:

Can't you just make the caps from something handy - like the covers off pump-style toothpaste or something? Paint 'em white on the inside and no one will ever know.

[Mike Halmarack]

Or make novelty ones out of Fimo and point them out to everyone who visits.

[Guy King]

The message from Mike Halmarack contains these words:

For modern chic, slip a dead mouse over each spindle.