Removing a radiator to decorate behind it

[Chintan77]

Hi,
I need to drain my radiator to decorate behind it.
I have turned the thermostat valve to the * position and turned the other valve all the way to the right. It is stone cold even after the heating turned on. When I release the air valve I'm getting water coming out and it's been nearly 30 minutes. Is there something I have missed? It's a 2 meter radiator. Any advice will be much appreciated

 

[Burnerman]

Unfortunately thermostatic valves cant be guaranteed to turn fully off.
What you need to do is to remove the thermostatic part and fit a decorators cap in its place- effectively a device that keeps the pin that you can see fully depressed.
John

 

[Chintan77]

Thank you for your help. How far in should the pin go until I know the valve is off? It doesn’t seem to go all the way down. About 2mm of it doesn’t do down

 

[JP_]

Can't you just got a thin roller? I don't remove rads to paint behind!

 

[Burnerman]

2mm pin projecting is often about right.....you will know though as you wont get any more water expelling out of the bleed valve if the TRV is closed. Presuming the lockshield is closed too, of course!
John

 

[misterhelpful]

Burnerman has given good advice as far as using a decorator's cap - many radiator valves can be a nuisance so these can sometimes be invaluable. However, I noticed that you stated you had turned the TRV to the '*' setting. Be aware that this is just the frost setting, which doesn't mean that the valve is fully closed. To turn the valve off, unless there is a fault somewhere, you should turn it to the '0' position. Again, this doesn't always guarantee that there won't be a leak somewhere, but if the valve is good, it should be all you need to do.
Also, depending on how fast the water is being released at the unscrewed valve, it can often take more than 30 minutes for large rads.