Towel rail leaking

[CountryFan]

Cleaned it up!

Great! That looks like the packing gland but type. Back it off an apply some ptfe rolled up thin and wrap around and push into the little exposed part and then tighten nut back up

 

[CoffeeCake]

Success! Thanks so much terry and stuckinarut! Repacking the gland worked and I learned a lot along the way. Last question. The other side of the rail has this valve with a screw head (picture attached). There is a very very slow leak here - a drop forms over 3-5 mins. Any suggestions for this? Tbh it's so slow that once the heating comes on it dries up but I want to try to fix this too if possible. The screw doesn't come all the way out so I cant get ptfe on to its grooves. Thanks for all your help.

 

[CoffeeCake]

Any suggestions here?

 

[CountryFan]

That looks like it may have o-rings, but also you may get away with ptfe or ls-x. You’d need to back it off, but it would likely need to be drained off.

 

[terryplumb]

Definitely an O rings issue ,they would need to be replaced. Or replace the whole valve .

 

[CoffeeCake]

Ok thanks, so no way of doing this without draining the system?

 

[amfisted]

Ok thanks, so no way of doing this without draining the system?

I had a similar problem with a towel rail. We inherited it when we moved here in 2022, and I didn’t try to close the valves till about 3 weeks ago, after deciding to drain the rather scruffy rail and replace it. The valves were very stiff to close and both developed a leak when I managed to turn them, so I replaced them both along with the rail. Can you access the chrome to copper connector on the other side of that wall, or is it buried? With mine, the chrome pipe rotated when I was tightening up the new valves and the chrome/copper connector developed a leak. If you do replace the valves, just be aware that the chrome pipe might rotate and cause another leak at that next connector.