Radiator tails

[Hot&Cold]

Do you honestly get a tradie in for every job in your house?

Yes for work out of my scope,its to do with having no insurance for diy at home work.
The site owner here has links and an advert re diy work insurance.

Diy work is always diy work.

 

[Brigadier]

There is always the point that, even if I decide not to do the work myself and get a "pro" in, having some idea of what the proper way is to handle a job makes it more likely I won't get fleeced.

 

[Hot&Cold]

A lot depends on the new metric radiator length compared to the existing imperial length,if your existing are metric then no problems.

Fitting a slightly shorter rad with extensions to fixed pipes is one easy way to get the job done.

Often a new metric radiator equivalent size is longer but there may be some play in the pipes under a suspended wood floor,maybe some floor board can be cut away on both sides to move the pipes equally.If you have fixed pipes then extensions are a quick remedy.

Diy is very possible.

 

[Lower]

How would you propose to join the steel pipe to the radiator valve when shortened?
Who mentioned it was a steel pipe?

I'm talking about a rad tail threaded at one end to go into the rad and the other end being a straight section of pipe designed to join to the rad valve with an olive. The ones I've fitted recently have been plated steel, but I'm sure they are made of other materials too. But not copper as it would be too soft to take the threads.

Why the aggressiveness?

 

[Lower]

I'd guess at nut and olive (no ptfe!), but is it a trick question?



I'd presumed that, as one part is threaded, that would definitely not be copper.
Are you saying that the pipe part is copper, with a chrome finish?

There are different types of rad tails and associated valves. You need the type that is designed to be used with an olive. The pipe part won't be copper, it would be too soft to take the threads.

Ignore those who are trying to say that a diyer shouldn't fit a new rad and tails. It's a straight forward task if you are comfortable with basic plumbing

 

[Lower]

Aggressive????..I'll show you aggressive if you like.

Thanks for the offer, but you know exactly what I'm referring to.

But I choose to help the person that came on here with a perfectly reasonable diy question in a diy forum, not criticise or belittle.

 

[lemon_1]

i prefer loctite 55 to ptfe

 

[Steelmasons]

How would you propose to join the steel pipe to the radiator valve when shortened?
Who mentioned it was a steel pipe?

If this post was aggressive I'm sure the moderator would have deleted it?

=============
unacceptable posts WERE deleted
Mod
=============

 

[ianmcd]

I'm talking about a rad tail threaded at one end to go into the rad and the other end being a straight section of pipe designed to join to the rad valve with an olive. The ones I've fitted recently have been plated steel, but I'm sure they are made of other materials too. But not copper as it would be too soft to take the threads.

Why the aggressiveness?

if you mean that the tails are too long you just put the valve body on and hand tighten the nut, then chap the valve and it will slide along the tail, then tighten the nut to compress the olive.

 

[Henry 3 Dogg]

Whenever a DIYer mentions PTFE I get an attack of the vapours.

Don't think I have a single roll of the stuff on the van.

Then you’ve failed to understand its proper usage.

PTFE tape acts as thread lubricant. This is highly desirable on any screwed compression fitting because it makes the torque applied to the nut relate more linearly to the compression on the mating surface.

I’m not a plumber. I’m an engineer.

Get some PTFE tape.

 

[Dan Robinson]

No.

 

[dilalio]

No.

 

[Madrab]

PTFE tape acts as thread lubricant. This is highly desirable on any screwed compression fitting because it makes the torque applied to the nut relate more linearly to the compression on the mating surface.

Erm ..... Nope ... don't agree. Maybe with mechanical threads in other engineering areas but not where a water/gas seal is required in plumbing/gas work.

PTFE tape/liquid in plumbing is used to bridge small imperfections and create gas/water tight seals in mating surfaces that wouldn't otherwise create a seal without something else. Manufacturing tolerances are not exact enough for each and every plumbing fitting across the different manufacturers and it sometimes need another medium to help create the seal.

For a mechanical thread that is creating a water or gas tight seal directly at the thread, then a thread sealant like PTFE tape can be used to help create the seal i.e. rad tails, wall plate elbows etc but it's not used as a lubricant rather help create the seal at the thread faces. When using another component in a fitting, as with the olive within a compression fitting, the last thing needed is a lubricated thread, you are looking for the mechanical grip of the threads to keep the compression fitting tight and the olive sealed tight against the tapered ends.

More often than not though, when DIYers use PTFE on threads in a compression fitting, they use it as the fitting is weeping and wrap the threads due to a misunderstanding how the fitting creates the seal and then the seal ends up being created at the thread and not the olive. This almost always weeps again over time. Either that or they use too much which then stops the thread from tightening the olive against the fittings tapered face properly stopping it from sealing properly.

 

[FiremanT]

Then you’ve failed to understand its proper usage.

PTFE tape acts as thread lubricant. This is highly desirable on any screwed compression fitting because it makes the torque applied to the nut relate more linearly to the compression on the mating surface.

I’m not a plumber. I’m an engineer.

Get some PTFE tape.

Engineers make me laugh. When I ran a shop, they were the bane of my life, but gave us something to laugh about.
My favourite was the one we nicknamed "Planman".
He phoned to ask me to fit a new pump. Told me the model. Fair enough. I always carried Grunnys in stick and said I would call to fit one. He started to give me the measurements. I said STOP - the new is a direct replacement.
Ten minutes later, the FAX (remember them ? . ) kicked in and out spilled a perfect tech drawing of A PUMP. We had a laugh and chucked it in the bin, moaning about waste of toner.

Called to the job, Grunny in hand, he showed me to the boiler.

The tw@t had spent an age measuring and drawing but had failed to mention that it was fitted in a corner between a wall and the boiler, something like a Diplomat. You could hardly get a fag paper between the pump and the wall or boiler. Impossible to get tools in and pump out.

Funnily enough, I can't recall what I did.

The only thing dafter than an engineer is an engineers wife. They think they are married to a God

 

[Dan Robinson]

Most couldn’t engineer a way out of a cardboard box outside of their specific job.

Even worse though are architects. Although there is a special place for M&E engineers. Their designs should be printed on absorbant paper. At least the introduction of email and Dropbox has significantly reduced their burden on the rainforest.


FFS being lectured on PTFE by some "engineer" on a diy forum on a Bank Holiday? Don't make me laugh! I've eaten too much bbq