Radiator off and on

[alex1987]

Hi, had a wall replastered recently so had to get a radiator taken off temporarily. Plumber took it off and stuck some caps on, and I need to get back in touch sometime next week to get it put back again.

He said when he comes back, he needs to drain down the system and bleed the radiators, and that he'd pop in the loft to lift up the valve in the header tank while his mate fixes the radiator back again.

This seems more involved than I thought it would be, despite the job being very cheap - my dad has taken off plenty of rads before in his house and not drained anything. Ours is a microbore system and we had a brand new boiler only about 18 months ago and had each rad powerflushed. We had a month or so of noisy pipes afterwards and were continually bleeding them, so I would rather not fiddle with anything again now that it seems to have resolved itself.

Can the rad not just be re-attached without draining?

Thanks

 

[flameport]

Can the rad not just be re-attached without draining?

Yes - unless the radiator valves are busted, in which case it might require some water draining out to replace them.
Otherwise it just goes back on in a few minutes.

A good idea to check in the loft anyway, to ensure that the valve actually works, and that the tank isn't full of rubbish which could be washed into the pipes when the radiator is filled.