Distinguishing flow and return pipes

[bouffe7]

In my infinite wisdom I removed a Rad from my study room to renovate/ decorate and marked the flow and return pipes. Give yourself a pat on the back Matt . At a later date I decided I would fit skirting heating so cut the pipes down and got rid of the cut ends WITH THE MARKS ON. Give yourself a slap on the forehead Matt .

I now want to establish which is the flow and return. I know I could connect back up to the rad and the flow will be the pipe that heats up first but I wondered if there might be a simpler way. The pipes are fed by pipes that come down the wall in the adjacent room and then go through stud partition at the bottom to feed the pipes in the study room. I have Isolation valves near the bottom of the pipes in the adjacent room so was thinking of doing the following and just wanted to check if it would work/ be safe to do so:

- connect two pipes in study together
- switch heating on
- open one of the valves
if the pipes heat up all the way through as far as the closed IV then I must have opened the flow. If they stay cold then the opposite. If the latter would then just double check that opening other valve does indeed give heat in pipes.

Or is there a better way?

cheers

 

[kevplumb]

does/did it have a trv on it

 

[bouffe7]

No and no. Ultimately the skirting heating will have a TRV but I don't want to just connect it up cos its a swine to disconnect / reconnect. Will I need to have a TRV between the joined pipes for my idea to work?

cheers for reply.

 

[kevplumb]

if you are gonna fit a trv get a bi directional one (most are now)

then it dont matter

you will however still have to balance the rad

 

[bouffe7]

Cheers- will check with supplier of skirting heating (discreteheat). If its Unidirectional will still have problem of distinuishing flow from return though. Are you intimating that my original idea willl only work with a TRV also connected?

 

[kevplumb]

must read the post

easiest way is take the board up where the pipes drop (it will have been up before)

run the heating and see which of the main feeds heats up first

 

[Homesafe]

You don't need the pipes to be joined just cap them with pushfits then follow to see which heats up first, but as suggested Bi-directional valves should be fine.

 

[MANDATE]

If you fit some clear plastic pipe in place of the radiator you'll see the direction of flow.

 

[MANDATE]

duplicated reply

 

[bouffe7]

must read the post

easiest way is take the board up where the pipes drop (it will have been up before)

run the heating and see which of the main feeds heats up first

I presume for this to work I will still have to connect the two pipes in my study together and open both IVs to create flow? I may also have failed to make it clear that the pipes in the adjacent room are surface, running down the whole length of the wall so would this mean that taking the boards up will be unneccesary?

 

[bouffe7]

You don't need the pipes to be joined just cap them with pushfits then follow to see which heats up first, but as suggested Bi-directional valves should be fine.

Cheers- As the pipes dropping down in the utility (adjacent room) are surface does that mean that I could just keep the IVs closed and see which pipe above the IV heats up first?

 

[Homesafe]

You don't need the pipes to be joined just cap them with pushfits then follow to see which heats up first, but as suggested Bi-directional valves should be fine.

Cheers- As the pipes dropping down in the utility (adjacent room) are surface does that mean that I could just keep the IVs closed and see which pipe above the IV heats up first?

You could but if there is no flow in a section of pipe you may be there till after midnight.

 

[bouffe7]

[/quote]You could but if there is no flow in a section of pipe you may be there till after midnight. [/quote]

when you suggested just capping was an option I presumed that as the isolation valves are at the bottom of the pipe drop that it amounts to pretty much the same thing. I have always thought that there would be no flow in this case if the pipes were just capped and therefore the pipes wouldn't heat up.

Am I wrong in my above assumptions?

 

[kevplumb]

must read the post

easiest way is take the board up where the pipes drop (it will have been up before)

run the heating and see which of the main feeds heats up first

well

 

[Homesafe]

If it's easy for you then join them up.