After moving into a twelve year-old house with an open-vented heating system, I am in the process of replacing 7 (of 11) radiators that are showing signs of corrosion around the unions. One rad has already been replaced, probably within the last three years or so. One handwheel valve is leaking from the spindle when turned off, so I guess it makes sense to replace all the rad valves too. From the water that I drained off from one of the rads, it looks as though there's some black sludge in there but there's not been a problem with cold rads or excessively noisy boiler (Potterton Netaheat Profile) so assume it is not generally too bad.
The ground floor rads all have small screw-on drain caps (not decent draincocks with a hose connection) and as there is no other obvious draincock assume I will need to drain down the system from these. As there seems to be no way of controlling the flow, are there any tips for doing this without making a real mess of the walls and flooring?
Given that the rads throughout are connected to the system via 8 mm microbore piping, can I get away with reusing the existing olives and valve cap nuts and simply reconnect these to new replacement valves? If this isn't a good idea, can the olives be cut off from the microbore pipe tails and new olives and cap nuts fitted without needing to reduce the length of the pipe (by having to cut off the pipe where the old olive was located)?
Whilst I've got the system drained down, I'm also planning to replace the 3-way mid position valve (it's been sticking) and the leaking valves either side of the pump. Is there anything else that is worth doing at the same time? Renew the pump perhaps? And what's the verdict on which is best to use for joints - PTFE tape or a jointing compound such as Fernox LS-X? I've used LS-X in the past but have been told that PTFE is best.
Lastly, has anyone had dealings with HeatandPlum.com of Wadebridge in Cornwall as I'm thinking of getting the Stelrad Elite rads from them? Any input would be most welcome.
Thanks, A.
The ground floor rads all have small screw-on drain caps (not decent draincocks with a hose connection) and as there is no other obvious draincock assume I will need to drain down the system from these. As there seems to be no way of controlling the flow, are there any tips for doing this without making a real mess of the walls and flooring?
Given that the rads throughout are connected to the system via 8 mm microbore piping, can I get away with reusing the existing olives and valve cap nuts and simply reconnect these to new replacement valves? If this isn't a good idea, can the olives be cut off from the microbore pipe tails and new olives and cap nuts fitted without needing to reduce the length of the pipe (by having to cut off the pipe where the old olive was located)?
Whilst I've got the system drained down, I'm also planning to replace the 3-way mid position valve (it's been sticking) and the leaking valves either side of the pump. Is there anything else that is worth doing at the same time? Renew the pump perhaps? And what's the verdict on which is best to use for joints - PTFE tape or a jointing compound such as Fernox LS-X? I've used LS-X in the past but have been told that PTFE is best.
Lastly, has anyone had dealings with HeatandPlum.com of Wadebridge in Cornwall as I'm thinking of getting the Stelrad Elite rads from them? Any input would be most welcome.
Thanks, A.
