Draining a sealed system using a pump?

[FLM]

I need to drain my sealed central heating system which is attached to a combi boiler in order to move a radiator.

I understand that I can use the drain cock located on a pipe beneath the boiler by switching of the power and water supply to the boiler, connecting a hose to the drain cock, and then opening the drain cock.

However, the drain cock appears to be higher than the level of the radiator valves and I am worried that once the system is drained, when I come to disconnect the radiator and remove the valves I'll have water gushing out of the top of the exposed copper pipe which will be hard to collect.

I thought that maybe I could connect a pump (e.g. drill powered water pump) to the end of a hose attached to the drain cock to suck out as much water as possible from the system.

Will this work or is this a bad idea? Is there any other way of draining the water out of the system?

 

[Bambergaspipe]

I need to drain my sealed central heating system which is attached to a combi boiler in order to move a radiator.

I understand that I can use the drain cock located on a pipe beneath the boiler by switching of the power and water supply to the boiler, connecting a hose to the drain cock, and then opening the drain cock.

However, the drain cock appears to be higher than the level of the radiator valves and I am worried that once the system is drained, when I come to disconnect the radiator and remove the valves I'll have water gushing out of the top of the exposed copper pipe which will be hard to collect.

I thought that maybe I could connect a pump (e.g. drill powered water pump) to the end of a hose attached to the drain cock to suck out as much water as possible from the system.

Will this work or is this a bad idea? Is there any other way of draining the water out of the system?

How long have you got?.. to be honest you haven`t the first clue, you must know a plumber or mate surely? this isn`t something I would take on yourself. Are you moving a radiator? the pipes will have to be altered, get some more advice. You can also search this forum & probably get most of the advice you need

 

[gas4you]

Drain as much as possible from the drain cock, move to radiator in question and turn off rad valves both ends, drain this radiator via the nut between the valve and the rad into a shallow dish with towels etc under it, then with each valve in turn open it and drain rest of water from system out into dish

 

[fumb]

And replace the lockshield with one which has a drain off point

You'll never have the problem again then

 

[FLM]

Great, thanks for your advice gas4you and fumb. That all sounds perfectly fine. Was just relunctant to get anything wet!

 

[Bambergaspipe]

Great, thanks for your advice gas4you and fumb. That all sounds perfectly fine. Was just relunctant to get anything wet!

I stand corrected & humbled

 

[corgiman]

Great, thanks for your advice gas4you and fumb. That all sounds perfectly fine. Was just relunctant to get anything wet!

I stand corrected & humbled

LMAO

that will be the blooody day

 

[fumb]

I stand corrected & humbled

Can anybody else hear that?

Kind of a flapping sound with the odd OINK..

 

[FLM]

No worries Bambergaspipe!!!!

I haven't moved the pipes yet...so much that still could go wrong!!!

 

[Bambergaspipe]

I stand corrected & humbled

Can anybody else hear that?

Kind of a flapping sound with the odd OINK..

How do you do them colourful thingies, most pretty, Bravo!

 

[FLM]

Thought I'd update this in case anyone still cares...

I posted the original question as I didn't want to run the risk of soaking the flat below. My problem was that the drain cock for the system was higher than the point that I had to cut into the pipes to move them (which was underneath the floorboards).

In practise draining the system was much easier than my naive self expected:

I attached a garden hose to the drain cock with a jubilee clip, turned off boiler, and opened the valve to start draining. I then opened the radiator air bleeding valves (starting with the one on the highest rad) to speed up the drain.

When the hose ran dry I used gas4you's tip to drain and remove the rad. Then, using suitably sized containers to fit under the floorboards and someone to help me empty them whilst I swtiched them over, I carefully cut into the pipe and removed the residual water without spilling a drop!

Once I'd moved the pipes around I moved the drain cock to the lowest convenient point possible before reconnecting and repressurizing the system.

Simple.