Rad valve gland packing?

Only trivial to people who lack basic understanding and training. I know quite well what plumbers hemp looks like thanks. All the information I gave is basic, what any real heating engineer/ plumber would know that had even elementary training. Only cowboy tradesmen would be unaware of such elementary stuff. You know, the one's that do bodged work through ignorance or to save money.

Dear God, You really should keep quiet. A gate valve is intended to isolate only,.It should only be left fully open or closed.

A globe valve can be used for throttling/flow control in non arduous situations. However they are not very precise.

In message , T i m writes

A pretty patterned green tin? My wife bought me one for a Christmas present! It's fine for tying up plants etc, but it's hardly heavy duty parcel string. I think it only has three strands.

It's actually a bit too thick for radiator valves, so simply separate the strands, and use one of them. [You can do two more valves with the other two strands!]

What about KY Jelly? Probably not, as I think it's water-soluble.

Like I said elsewhere, 50% of them are gate valve design (these are fitted at the top of a rad) and the others are a 'cone' pressing into a seat, more like a conventional tap / rubber (but without the full 'seal' as such). These are only fitted to the bottoms of the rads.

Ah, again not that straightforward as there is only one valve per rad. [1]

Ah ok, and no better / worse properties for this role than help then?

I will do. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yeah, could be! ;-)

Hehe.

You are probably right. The roll I bought from Homebase was the strongest of three options. The first two was white and the last this brown Jute stuff. However, I was looking more for the tightness of construction rather than its parcel tying strength as such. ;-)

Ah, maybe these rad valves are bigger (as it's all mostly a 1-1/2" ex gravity system) so even the largest stuff goes in easily. And it's things like that that get me wondering when folk suggest stuff that

I generally can't do it any other way I'm afraid Ian. ;-(

The valve on the towel rail is of the gate valve type and they seem to have a bigger / external type flange and even with my 18" adjustable, are nearly impossible to move (I've done one so far). You might be able to see it here.

Imagine where the chrome cover screws over the top, that lip you see at the joint between the cover and the body is the diameter of the flange. (the pip going to the rad is 3/2" and the pipe going up the wall is 1-1/4").

Shame as I have a tub of that in the be.... no, as you were ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Yes, that's what I've done to some degree with some of the 'new' packing string as it's nowhere near as 'dead' as the old stuff (so sort of bounces out again when you unload the nut then collar).

I am, in a 'I really should be doing other things' sorta way. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

In message , T i m writes

You want softness (compressibility) - not tightness of construction.

Where I once worked, the had a large tin of Vaseline in the lab. Some merry wag labelled it "Fred Smith's* Super Special Stuff".

Hmm, ok ... but you have got to be able to get enough of it in there in the first place?

Hehe.

It was funny, we were talking about all that sort of thing ... banter at work the other day. Daughter has worked as a 'groundy' for a local tree surgery Co for 6 months and as is tradition it seems in many such industries, there were few 'accommodations' for the fact she was a female. So, the language and topics of discussion were often the same, her present or not. Luckily, she's pretty broad minded and in fact though it good that they could be 'themselves' with her.

Not sure what the officials would think however.

Cheers, T i m

Sorry must have missed that bit - I was assuming one of each per rad.

A rad valve (in the lockshield role) is a pretty undemanding application. It rarely gets "used", and just has to contend with some thermal cycling between predictable limits. Spose you could swap em for TRVs, but then you would be stuck with plumber style rad balancing (i.e. let the TRV sort it out!)

You seem to be rambling harry.

Quick recap:

Tim asked what plumbers hemp looked like, and I told him. Now for some reason in spite of claiming to know what it looks like, you criticised my accurate description as "misinformation". Would you care to retract that statement?

Its ok, you can call me John.

Perhaps you should take your own advice... Your experience in domestic plumbing does seem somewhat suspect, since it flies in the face of the evidence presented here by many over the years.

Gate valves are a very poor choice if you want isolation. The gate seat typically gathers scale or other crud, and prevents the gate from ever resealing properly[1], so they never quite fully arrest the flow.

After long periods of not being used the gate also often sizes in its slot. This often results in the internal spindle connection snapping when you try to open it. The result being a tap handle that just turns endlessly, and a valve that stays shut.

Don't take my word for it, ask anyone else here who has encountered them in domestic situations.

The only times I use a gate valve, is where I want a balancing valve between heating circuits, where their fine control is useful and the fact that they won't ever stop dribbling later in life is not a problem. Or, where you want a temporary stop tap to get a partial system working, and at some point it will have a pipe connected to it, be opened up and never used again (on the grounds they are cheap and offer less flow resistance than a cheap ball valve).

As would be the norm these days.

I'm not sure you could, I think these might be bigger than today's offerings?

p.s. We fired the system up tonight and so far all is water tight. ;-)

you mean the pipe to rad spacing would be too large?

Nice when it all works first time ;-)

The misinformation is telling the OP he can use it for valve stem packing. It's only use is as a reinforcement for jointing paste.

I have already shown you a link that clearly identifies that gate valve are simply a cheap isolating valve.

Here's yet another one.

And another one.

All down to basic principles. Most installers of home heating have near zero theoretical knowledge and just do what they have been taught or guessed at.. Most of them can't even do a heat loss calculation and just guess at boiler/radiator sizes. Clearly no-one here has the faintest inkling about valve packings, what type of valve to use where or even about pipe joints.

BTW, ball valves come in two classes, restricting (with a small hole) and full bore (with a hole same size as the pipe). They too are an isolating valve. Mostly cheap and very nasty these days. The only benefit is 90deg operation.

I'm thinking the whole valve assembly is much bigger than today's systems? For a start it's sitting on 3/4" rather than 15mm pipe?

Well, that is always my plan. I'm in the process of making good all the issues created by someone who was probably 'doing his best' but where nearly *everything* he did carries with it the consequences of someone who isn't interested or practically skilled in anything (as it turns out).

Maybe I have learned the hard way .. 'Too much haste, not enough speed' ... ;-(

I have also learned that some people can't picture things (not here), even when it is spelled out and agreed.

Me: (from previous experience) "Ok, so you are happy to do X and so I'll leave you to it.

"So, do you remember that chat we had yesterday about what we agreed would be the best way to proceed ... why do you appear to have done something completely different?"

Cheers, T i m

You can get 22mm TRVs although they are far harder to find.

Myson certainly used to do one:

So you were replying to the wrong post then.

It is for that, but not only that.