I can't shut a radiator off...

Joined
23 Jun 2011
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Berkshire
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I want to temporarily remove a radiator as I'm redecorating. I plan to repaint the radiator and I really need to remove the skirting behind it. And repaint the wall behind it. Anyway, never min why I want to do it...

The radiator has a TRV. If I remove the TRV and fit a decorators cap, or if I shut off the TRV, the radiator does not get hot. So I conclude that that end is properly shut off. Although I've closed the lockshield valve (?) at the other end, the radiator is still pressurised and when I try to remove the radiator water floods out. Do those valves fail open? Is there any alternative to draining down and replacing the valve?
 
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One way of testing if valves are off properly is to open the bled vent into a suitable container and wait until water stops (approx 1 minute or less), water doesn’t stop, then valves passing, carry on as Terry has suggested.
 
Update in case anyone is interested...
By backing the valve off and closing it again I got about 1/8 of a turn more on it. It is now fully off, and the raditor has been removed. I'm now not convinced that it wasn't off already as that extra turn might have made the difference between a weep and nothing but couldn't have been more significant.
Thanks to both the posters above for making me think a bit at least!
 
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