Rad Removal - Do I need to drain down?

[Brownstone1892]

Hi all,

We're renovating our downstairs bathroom, and the missus wants the radiator moving. I'm confident in doing this myself, but I have one question about draining down. First of all, let me set the scene. We have a Worcester Bosch Greenstar Combi. I've been under the floor to check the rad pipes that feed the rad, they're plastic, and it only seems to have a feed and return. Should there not be a "bypass" (I don't know the correct term) in case the rad is turned off? It is possible that this is in the wall, below the rad, as I am yet to take a look in there due to it being tiled.
My main question is; do I need to drain the whole system down to temporarily remove this radiator whilst decorating, and moving its location? Or can I turn off all the radiators, then remove and connect the feed and return, to keep the rest of the system working whilst we're decorating the bathroom?

I hope I'm making sense...

 

[terryplumb]

No you do not connect flow to return.
Yes ,drain system to ammend pipework to new location.
To temporarily remove the rad for decorating ,close both it's valves ,drain only that rad and
remove it and fit blanking cap nuts and seals to both valves

 

[Brownstone1892]

No you do not connect flow to return.
Yes ,drain system to ammend pipework to new location.
To temporarily remove the rad for decorating ,close both it's valves ,drain only that rad and
remove it and fit blanking cap nuts and seals to both valves

Thanks for the speedy reply Terry. I might need to clarify some things:
I'm moving the position of the rad.
The existing pipes exit the wall through some tiles I'm removing.
I want to remove the rad from the system completely whilst I'm decorating the room.
The flow and return pipes are easily accessible under the floorboards in the crawl space.
Once the decorating is done, the new pipes will be connected back up to the system under the floor.

Am I going mad, regarding the "bypass" (again, I don't know the exact term) pipework, that allows the water to circulate past the rad if it's turned off?

Cheers,

Carl...

 

[ianmcd]

Am I going mad, regarding the "bypass" (again, I don't know the exact term) pipework, that allows the water to circulate past the rad if it's turned off?

There is no by-pass you have that completely wrong

If you are cutting the pipes to move them to a new position then you will have to drain the system, if you are not cutting them just close both valve s as @terryplumb advised earlier

 

[conny]

I'm not sure, (and stand to be corrected if wrong), but if you are removing the rad completely, and not re-fitting somewhere else, you can simply cap off the pipe ends and leave them alone. Do NOT connect them together!
I would try to cut them back as far as possible to the manifold to avoid having 'dead legs' in the pipe work which can help the breeding of legionella bacteria and other nasties. If you can make the stubs no more than 2" long that should be enough to prevent any contamination. The short the dead leg, the less chance of infection.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

There may be a system bypass somewhere but no there isn't one for every radiator

 

[Brownstone1892]

There is no by-pass you have that completely wrong

Hi Ian,

Thanks for replying. The reason I ask about this, is we moved a rad in the past, from one side of the room to the other, and it was only getting warm at the bottom. A heating engineer came in and explained this bypass was still in the old location, so he removed it, and put a new one in under the floor directly under the new postion of the radiator. Made sense in my IT Engineer brain

 

[Brownstone1892]

So, based on some great and very speedy responses, I have concluded I must drain down the system, then cap the pipes off under the floor until the decorating is finished and the new pipework location decided. Then I'll run the pipework in and reconnect it under the floor.

Does this sound about right?

 

[Brownstone1892]

Do NOT connect them together!

I'll assume this is to avoid hot water going back to the boiler?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

You only need to drain down if you're cutting the pipes. If (at this stage) you can tuck the pipework out of the way til you're ready for Phase 2 you can have heat in the rest of the house until Phase 2 starts

 

[oldbutnotdead]

I'll assume this is to avoid hot water going back to the boiler?

Yes ish. If you link flow and return directly, that becomes the path of least resistance so most of the flow will loop straight back to return, only some will continue through the radiators (which present more resistance to flow than a straight bit of pipe)

 

[conny]

Sorry, I speed read your post and didn't realise you were moving the rad elsewhere.
In that case, just cap them off under the floor until ready to extend them to new position.

 

[Brownstone1892]

You only need to drain down if you're cutting the pipes. If (at this stage) you can tuck the pipework out of the way til you're ready for Phase 2 you can have heat in the rest of the house until Phase 2 starts

That sounds like the plan. Cheers...

 

[Brownstone1892]

Many thanks for all of your replies. Fingers crossed for tomorrow

 

[terryplumb]

Don't forget to add inhibitor when the system is finally back up and running.