Have I Gone Overboard-Pipe Sizes

[mickroyds]

22 up to 28 for the rads

You have me confused ??

Only larking about. 22 to 15 is good

Did you start that one about the 22mm to 15mm increasers

Mick.

 

[dextrous]

Did you start that one about the 22mm to 15mm increasers

Mick.

Might have been

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

22mm to 10mm for me, never had a problem unless rad over 10,000ish btu then I go 15mm, as long as it works and looks neat I dont care.

 

[gigz]

22mm to 15mm for me as well, in the long term a much better and trouble free job.

 

[Biggles..]

Always 15mm to the rads. Plus, 15mm is readily available with chrome plating, which gives a professional touch when the tails only have a short run out of the floor or wall into the valves.

i cant think of anytjing more DIY than chrome pipe into rad valves.(chrome towel rads are the exception)

I completely disagree. Plain copper pipe into the valves, which are almost always chrome, looks absolutely horrid. What's more, it will tarnish over time.

If you honestly think that this...

Untitled

• electronicsuk
• 23 Mar 2010
• 1

...would have looked better with bare copper tails, then you're welcome to your opinion, but it wouldn't be at all to my taste.

that works due to the rad being a decrotavive cast replica(probably looks like a stelrad).

personally id bring the 10mm down the wall,out behind the middle of a panel rad(under the valve on a dec) and pull nice bends down to the valve with only 2-3inch of copper showing.or heaven forbid the same in plastic using drayton 10mm radiator elbows.

 

[electronicsuk]

that works due to the rad being a decrotavive cast replica(probably looks like a stelrad).

I think it was an Acova, but I don't live at that house any more, so I could be mistaken.

personally id bring the 10mm down the wall,out behind the middle of a panel rad(under the valve on a dec) and pull nice bends down to the valve with only 2-3inch of copper showing.or heaven forbid the same in plastic using drayton 10mm radiator elbows.

That's alright when you can get behind the wall, but if it's solid and you don't fancy chasing, I still fail to see what you can do surface-mount (bar boxing in, of course) that's going to beat short chrome tails. I fitted the entire CH system in the house pictured above, short of the boiler, and the upstairs rads all have the pipework passed through stud walls. However, it's still 15mm, and I still used short lengths of chrome pipe and matching elbows to turn straight back out of the valves and into the wall. I haven't got any pictures of that, though.

As I say, really down to personal opinion, but everyone who has seen my work in this respect has commented on how nice it looks. So much so that I installed a new rad in my parent's house last weekend, and again, with chrome tails

 

[holty]

how did you connect the chrome to copper. solder or compression? OP 22- 15mm anyday.usually 22 to the last couple of rads.

 

[The Madman]

My flow and return pipes appear to be 8mm, is this a bad thing? I'm in the process of replacing two radiators, one column and one 'normal', both of circa 9,500 BTU.

 

[gassafeengineer]

eeewwwwww 8mm my blood pumps round bigger diameter tubes

 

[electronicsuk]

how did you connect the chrome to copper. solder or compression? OP 22- 15mm anyday.usually 22 to the last couple of rads.

More recently I've scraped off a small amount of chrome plating and polished up the end of the pipe such that it can be soldered, but the radiator in the picture was connected with compression elbows under the floor.

 

[holty]

glad you had the time to scrape the chrome off.find it a right pain.the last time i used chrome was on a towel rad,funny piping. and then cleaned the copper soldered fittings and fluxed, then wiped solder on them to give a sort of chrome/silver finish.still couldnt be bothered doing it on all the rads tails though.and definetly wouldnt use compression under floorboards.

 

[tamz]

My flow and return pipes appear to be 8mm, is this a bad thing? I'm in the process of replacing two radiators, one column and one 'normal', both of circa 9,500 BTU.

You will struggle to get correct output through 8mm unless VERY short runs. Recommend you change them to 15mm from main runs.

cleaned the copper soldered fittings and fluxed, then wiped solder on them to give a sort of chrome/silver finish.

That will be the kind of chrome you have to keep polishing every day

 

[priorygas]

In all cases we would prefer to use 15mm pipework, because its more durable, less likely to sludge and gives a better flow of water to the radiators.

 

[m1key00]

22mm to 15mm copper all the time, cant stand microbore.

 

[mickroyds]

Thanks good people for confirming my decision has not gone to the wind, 10mm no doubt would have worked satisfactory but 15mm gives me the confidence of efficiency.

Has anyone comments on the discreet wall mounted F/R that's sited behind the radiator, looks similar to a wall socket for plumbing.

Just a point on cleaning chrome off pipes, I'm sure if you dip the end of the pipe in brick acid it will remove the chrome, it certainly removed it from my shower waste when I cleaned some gobbo of the tray.

Cheers Mick.