Can't get radiator off! Help?!

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Trying to remove a rad for decorating - I've undone one side but this is not budging and I am fearful of breaking the pipe (it's already bent and dribbling out water despite me trying to hold it in place)

I've already had to call a plumber for another room and had to pay £100 for him to take it off (with me putting it back) I am loathe to do that again - especially as I have another 6 rooms to do.

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Well your valves are old and the pipework in poor condition.

You should have engaged a plumber to drain the system remove the rad valves while you decorate and then replace with new rads and fill the system.

If I had been engaged to do that then I would have charged you £120 plus £50 per rad to fit top of the range Drayton TRV4 thermostatic valves and new lockshields.

Sounds rather expensive £100 to sort out a rad but perhaps you called him late at night on a weekend.
 
You need two spanners, one goes over the valve to act as a reaction force (to stop the valve trying to rotate) and the other to undo the union nut, (which is rotated downwards as you look at it)
But, if there's a leak at the point where the pipe enters the valve body, you'll probably need a plumber to repair that.
 
I think that it is not only leaking at pipe entry into the bottom of the valve but the pipe is kinked there!
 
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Well your valves are old and the pipework in poor condition.

You should have engaged a plumber to drain the system remove the rad valves while you decorate and then replace with new rads and fill the system.

If I had been engaged to do that then I would have charged you £120 plus £50 per rad to fit top of the range Drayton TRV4 thermostatic valves and new lockshields.

Sounds rather expensive £100 to sort out a rad but perhaps you called him late at night on a weekend.
All good advice but find me a plumber that isn't going to say the soonest I can do it is 4 weeks...
 
I often find that I lose jobs because someone else will get there in an hour and I would be two.

Once I was engaged to do a small repair and arrived within 25 minutes!

Only to find that someone else was already working on it.

And the customer had not even bothered to tell me. Some customers are a total waste of time. That one was not born in the UK if that is relevant. Nor was the plumber working there either.

Tony
 
Pack a block of wood of a right size, preferably little tight, between the wall and the body of the valve, make sure the block covers the bottom nut, so as to stop it turning when you apply downwards torque with your wrench or adjustable spanner, and then don't apply torque alone, you also need to apply sudden hammer blows to shake lose the big nut, tapping it with a sudden hammer force downwards, I found applying a constant force usually ends up kinking or twisting pipes, short sharp blows work better loosening stubborn nuts, and then remember the other side would open in a an upward direction, so here you can't pack any wood, and the pipe would end up kinking and leak if you only applied a constant torque, so short sharp blows will loosen it without causing a kink, so again have the spanner gripped tightly and tap it with a hammer a series of quick short sharp blows, this should loosen the nut and then you can use normal turning method to undo it completely.

The pipe you have now kinked and is leaking, could be rescued if you undo that lower coupling and use a new olive and put some ptf tape before retightening again, or worst comes to worst it will need to replace that small vertical section but you need pipe soldering skills and tools.
 

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