What the 'kinelll?

Working in a local hotel, last renovated in the late 80's, asked to bleed a rad in one of the rooms;

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tee is plastic, as is the pipe going to the right.

I'm at a loss as to whats going on - needless to say I didn't touch it in case something leaked.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman
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That isn't the part you bleed the radiator - that thing is to carry water in or out of the radiator. They work by hot water flowing through them! You need to look at the top part of the radiator at the side!

God knows why anyone ever calls you when you need to ask what to do on this newsgroup. Maybe we will see you on BBC Watchdog one day. Watch out!

Reply to
Roger

Is there a pipe coming out of the bottom of the Tee?

What about the other side of the rad - same arrangement?

One possibility is that another rad has been tacked onto and existing rad feed and return.

Bleeding it ought to be ok, but I understand the desire not to fiddle with the tail connections! ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

why would plastic plumbing stop you bleeding it?

NT

Reply to
NT

In message , The Medway Handyman writes

Well, presumably whoever installed it was lacking an elbow at the time and use the Tee instead. A bit of kludge, but otherwise I don't see the problem. I plumbed most of the CH in my old house with plastic.

why would you have needed to touch it to bleed it?

Reply to
chris French

Wonder what's at the other end of that pipe? Maybe someone hit the original metal pipe with a vacuum or something and bust it - and someone bodged it with whatever they had handy.

Reply to
Jules

Obviously the photo is upside-down, and is of a radiator mounted high-up on the wall in a hotel where they happen to like carpeted ceilings.

(sorry, Dave ;)

Reply to
Jules

Nope.

No, quite normal.

Yerbut - in plastic?

It bled OK, I'm just stunned by the plastic tee.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

It didn't. I was just amazed by the use of the plastic pipe.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

I didn't. Saying "I was asked to bleed a rad" was simply an attempt to set the scene, to explain why I was looking at the rad.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

to me it looks like there's a 15mm plastic pipe coming thru the wall, a 15mm plastic tee piece, then some 10mm copper pipe stuck down the tee, and held in place with a squidge of silicone,

if the tee is not feeding a pipe going through the floor, then it's prolly blanked off with more silicone,

could be there's silicone blocking the 10mm pipe up, hence why they think it needs bleeding, could be totally full of air and not blocked, but when bled the water pressure at the joint could pop the connection open,

which could be what the hotel owner wants, call in a handy man to do a simple job they could have done them selves, but when the job is done and the connection pops appart, they can then claim for a flooded hotel, loss of income and so on.

Reply to
gazz

The copper is 15mm, so I guess the plastic is around 22mm - appears to be overflow pipe.

Looks that way.

It bled OK, I was just curious about the plastic.

Regular job, my invoice covers my arse.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

i think it's the non use of a reducer, the overflow type plastic pipe and fitting, silicone to hold the whole thing in place thing that's more of a concern, who ever did it is a master bodger that's for sure.

i love the barrier type pipe my self, plumbed 95% of my motorhomes centeral heating system in with it, but i used the proper connectors, had 4 places where i had to go to 3/4" car heater hose... connections to and from the heater, and the connections to the 2 way 12 volt solenoid valve to select hot water only or hot water and rads to be heated, for those i connected a

15mm push fit to female 3/4" threaded adaptor to a barbed 3/4" threaded brass nipple,

the system has been in the motorhome for 5 years now, and not had any problems to date, and i've driven the van over some very shitty roads that broke welds on a proffesionaly made commercialy sold motorcycle rack,

Reply to
gazz

I think there were rigid plastic pipework systems (PVC, I think) sometime about the time you're describing. Maybe during the copper shortage? I've never come across any myself, though some stainless steel. The latter is a right PITA to work on, though interestingly enough I've seen some of it with soldered joints to copper solder-ring fittings - anyone know how one would solder to the stuff? (I did have a try with regular solder and flux

- no dice.)

Reply to
YAPH

Pillock, I've just wetted the screen! :)

Reply to
Clot

It's what you get if you have your radiators fitted by a cobbler.

Derek

Reply to
Derek Geldard

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "The Medway Handyman" saying something like:

A bodge. Matey who fitted it didn't have an elbow so used a T with a blank on one end. It's just got a reducer in the rad-facing end, usually not a real problem, but I'd tend to avoid them being in places where they'd be kicked.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Via your mouth or nose, I trust?

:P

Reply to
Jules

I *hope* the plastic plumbing is sleeving over copper all the way. It could be some bizarre homemade attempt at insulating the pipework.

Would I be right in thinking this wasn't a five star establishment?

If you type the hotel name into

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you could find what other little quirks guests have noticed about the place.

Reply to
dom

Because if such a dodgy connection did start to leak shortly after the radiator was bled there's every chance the client would blame the bleeder for the leak and demand it be fixed...

Guy

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Reply to
Guy Dawson

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