In my ham-fisted efforts to fix a sticking TRV, I've gone & pulled the pin out of the valve. It wouldn't push in, so I thought, "I'll give it a light tap with a hammer"!
Does anyone know a quick way to replace a TRV without draining the system?
Use a freezing kit. Will give you half an hour or so,
Dave
No help to you, but I just had the same problem (Mum-in-Law's house) but didn't have a hammer to hand (fortunately).
TRV wouldn't open, I tried pushing the pin down, then lifting it with the plier attachment on my Swiss Army Knife.
Pin freed off a treat and is now working fine.
I was just musing how much a plumber would have charged :-)
Cheers
Dave R
P.S. if you swich the wires over on the pump and run it backwards at full speed it will suck the water back instead of pushing it out. You will have to bleed the system afterwards to get the air out, though. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No - really - don't try this at home kiddies :-)
I haven't had the courage to do it myself, but as I decorate each room, I've been getting our village plumber to come and change the valves on each rad. He does it live, drains the rad, spreads two or three towels under the valves, releases the glands on the rad then the compresssion nut, whips the old valve off, pops a new one on and does up the compression nut. Takes him literally twqo or three minutes to do once the rad is drained.
I reckon he loses about half a cup of water - as the room is cleared for decorating at the time and no floor covering down it's not too much of a problem. All you need to be certain of is that the new valve is closed and that the old and new fittings are both 1/2" bsp thread for the compression nut. I think some older fittings were different thread size.
Reminds me of the days - yup, I used to do it, prolly around the 60's, when we changed tap washers without draining, just whipped off the top, muffled the hole with rag or summat, bunged a new washer on the jumper thingy, rammed it back.
Isolators everywhere - they dont know they're born.....
mike r
On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 21:08:38 +0100, a particular chimpanzee named "David W.E. Roberts" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
Which was what I had in mind. Sod's Law, however, had other plans for me.
Giving things a Big Wallop with a hammer is my job. :-))
The only way I can think of, is for you to drain the system down and do it safely. You might get away with replacing just the head containing the pin (valve) assembly, but you'd have to be really quick at changing it over when you see the water beginning to dribble out of the old valve.
I'm missing something here I think. The valves are on the piping side of the feed to the radiator, so taking a valve off means that you are exposing the whole system to producing a flood.
Are you saying that he removes the valve from the pipe to do this job? Sounds that way, but I just want to be sure before I give it a try.....
PoP
Yes, it can be done. If you have everything prepared before you start the job, then keeping pressure downward on the valve, against the pipe and olive, while you undo the compression nut. Then you'll hardly spill a drop. Once the nut is fully off the old valve, you quickly grab the new one, which you've already removed the nut from, and replace it on top of the pipe. You then keep the pressure downward on the new valve until you get the nut done up again.
As Wanderer says though, it is better to have plenty towels around to catch the drops that do escape.
Had to replace my house's stop c*ck this way. Old one wouldn't turn off. Couldn't find the street one. Thames Water would have taken a week to turn off the street and informed all our neighbours that it was our fault.
Christian.
Knowing my flippin' luck I'd whip off the old valve and then watch helplessly as the nut ran down the pipe and disappeared through the hole in the floor..... ;)
PoP
If you have a feed/expansion tank, you can get large bungs to block up the feed and expansion pipes. Then, if you are lucky, you can open the system at one point and have little drainage. With a sealed pressurised system, you might find that first draining off enough to empty the expansion tank is enough to do the same trick.
Always have plan B available, which means you have the water shut off to the tank and a hose ready attached to the drainage point, someone standing near the drainage to turn it on when you scream and a bucket and rags near the valve to be replaced.
Also, if you try doing two radiator valves at a time, there will be tears before tea time.
Christian.
ROFLMAO !!!!! But that's why you wrap a towel around the bottom of the pipe first, silly works. :-)) ROFL !!!
In message , BigWallop writes
Sounds a bit too close to the new BG advert for me
It`s also useful to havea couple of old plastic 6 pint milk cartons laid on their side with a large hole cut out. They can then be pressed up against any leak and catch a lot of water.
As for working on a Live central heating system , I believe that Drayton ( who make the TRVs) do a pair of rubber bungs which you put in your CH header tank to prevent any leakage whist changing valves etc.( no good for combi systems though)
Bloody hell, how did you stop the flood - did you get all your neighbours to turn on al their taps at exactly 3pm and then go for it ? :-)
Steve
You could turn the flow down a bit with the existing stop c*ck. I was surprised how little water came out really, if you're really quick jamming the new valve on. The old valve is still on the line. It opens fully OK, just doesn't turn off. The kitchen was (still is) the process of refitting and there were a few missing floorboards around the valve, so the water everywhere wasn't as bad as it would have been in a bedroom with fitting carpet.
Christian.
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