Suggestions of how to stop this leak.

[Mottie]

Now that my heating is off, I have a small leak - no more than a few drips per day. I suspect that when the heating was on, the heat from the pipe either expanded the joint and sealed the leak or just evaporated what little did leak. Anyway, the bottom nut is as tight as tight can be so there's no more crush left on the olive. Because of the shape of the pipe I doubt whether I will be able to cut and solder a fresh piece of pipe in and taking the floor up will be a major upheaval so my only hope is to undo the nut and either seal it with tape or sealant around the olive and retighten. What would be best to use?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Drain down heating system, undo nut and slide down to expose olive, slight lift radiator to completely expose olive, rap ptfe around olive a few times, lower radiator back down on olive, tighten up nut, apply 1 litre of inhibitor, fill bleed and test.

Andy

 

[Mottie]

Drain down heating system, undo nut and slide down to expose olive, slight lift radiator to completely expose olive, rap ptfe around olive a few times, lower radiator back down on olive, tighten up nut, apply 1 litre of inhibitor, fill bleed and test.

Andy

In true Mottie style, I’ve done **** all about it. The TRV has been getting stiffer to turn so I took the head off this morning to swap over with another to see if it was the valve or the head and I immediately saw that the leak wasn’t the olive that was leaking (which must be well crushed by now) but saw that the leak was the actual valve. I have a new valve but I’m wondering whether I need to drain the whole system (it’s a sealed system) or just release the pressure and do a quick change? I know the theory about there being a bit of a vacuum in a sealed system with the pressure released but I can see me flooding the house! Whaduya reckon, full drain or be quick about it?

 

[gas112]

Release the pressure and change it easiest way stick hose on drain cock it will stop within 30 secs or open an air bleed and remove and catch it in a bucket. Turn off the lockshield on other side. Then remove the trv just have an old towel handy under it....if you have any visible auto air vents on system then screw the caps down first

 

[Mottie]

Release the pressure and change it easiest way stick hose on drain cock it will stop within 30 secs or open an air bleed and remove and catch it in a bucket. Turn off the lockshield on other side. Then remove the trv just have an old towel handy under it....if you have any visible auto air vents on system then screw the caps down first

Hoorah, I did just that and it’s all fine. One snag was that the lockshield on the other side was seized and when I tried to use a bit of force on that, I cracked the bloody thing. I had a new one of those handy too so I changed that. Topped up the pressure and haven’t needed to bleed the system yet. Running it up to temp at the moment and I’ll go round checking for air in rads when it’s cooled down although I do have an auto air bleed valve in the system.

Over the years, I’ve replaced a couple of the TRV heads and I’ve always bought a new complete kit with TRV and lockshield valves as it was only a few quid more than buying just the head - I was advised to do this by the bloke in my local plumbers merchants. Turned out he was spot on.

I drained probably half a bucket of water out - do you think that would have significantly diluted the inhibitor?

Edit: Now that the fresh water from the top up has had a chance to circulate the system for 20 minutes, I’ve drained off half a cupful from my mag filter and dropped a steel nail in it, along with half a cupful of tap water in another container as a test and I’m going to see if the system water makes the nail rust. If it doesn’t, does that mean it’s okay?

 

[gas112]

Hoorah, I did just that and it’s all fine. One snag was that the lockshield on the other side was seized and when I tried to use a bit of force on that, I cracked the bloody thing. I had a new one of those handy too so I changed that. Topped up the pressure and haven’t needed to bleed the system yet. Running it up to temp at the moment and I’ll go round checking for air in rads when it’s cooled down although I do have an auto air bleed valve in the system.

View attachment 319794

Over the years, I’ve replaced a couple of the TRV heads and I’ve always bought a new complete kit with TRV and lockshield valves as it was only a few quid more than buying just the head - I was advised to do this by the bloke in my local plumbers merchants. Turned out he was spot on.

I drained probably half a bucket of water out - do you think that would have significantly diluted the inhibitor?

Edit: Now that the fresh water from the top up has had a chance to circulate the system for 20 minutes, I’ve drained off half a cupful from my mag filter and dropped a steel nail in it, along with half a cupful of tap water in another container as a test and I’m going to see if the system water makes the nail rust. If it doesn’t, does that mean it’s okay?

Na don't worry about adding more inhibitor it will be OK.

 

[Mottie]

Now that the fresh water from the top up has had a chance to circulate the system for 20 minutes, I’ve drained off half a cupful from my mag filter and dropped a steel nail in it, along with half a cupful of tap water in another container as a test and I’m going to see if the system water makes the nail rust. If it doesn’t, does that mean it’s okay?

Looks like it’s okay.

 

[BlueLoo]

Looks like it’s okay.

View attachment 320186

Clever idea.
Might throw a nail in my head tank and see what happens.

 

[aveatry]

What I have done in the past instead of a towl is to buy puppy pads and lay those out to catch any spills I got a pack of 10 for just a few quid from poundsaver or somewhere like that - they are really cheap. these