Our snow is turning to rain. 

I pity your horses.  They were having a whale of a time.

Our snow is crunchy under foot, bloody freezing here.   I haven't been out, plenty in the freezer to eat and my lad brought me some milk yesterday.

Rad fix worked and no flood. Oddly it still runs at a bit lower temperature than other rads. I noticed that a long time ago and hoped fixing the faulty valve might sort that too. I think the installer may have put it in series with another rad.

I wish I understood plumbing and heating 

Quote from: Alex on January 19, 2024, 02:27:12 PMI wish I understood plumbing and heating 

I'm sure you do.
After all, Mups (on another forum) insists that you women can do anything, and I believe her.

Quote from: Alex on January 19, 2024, 02:27:12 PMI wish I understood plumbing and heating 

It's mostly common sense.

First I checked if it wanted bleeding. It didn't.

I turned the thermostic valve on and off a few times and gave it a few taps in case it had stuck (like thumping an old TV). Then the same with the lockshield valve at the other end. The pipe going to the rad was hot but the other end wasn't. Looks like a valve is partly blocked or stuck. Unlikely to be the lockshield as they are pretty crude.

Got a valve from Toolstation £13

Turned off boiler and all rads

Ready for a flood...



Detached old valve fitted new one to rad quickly. Minor leakage. Original valve still on pipe in bowl.



Swapped pipe from old valve to the new one on the rad. A bit more leaked.

Old valve and leakage in bowl.



I reckon some blokes dribble more than that in their pants. 

I messed about with the old valve and couldn't find a fault. Maybe clonking it about changing it somehow sorted it. Maybe there was some crud in the rad but none came out. I don't really care.

Now be honest Alex was any of that beyond you? I doubt it. I only used the ring spanner while messing with the thermostat valve in place to see it it would miracuously start working again but it didn't. All that was needed was the adjustible. I will have to trim off some surplus ptfe tape as it looks untidy.

Quote from: klondike on January 19, 2024, 03:52:44 PMIt's mostly common sense.

And therein lies the problem..

Oooh. Get you. 

Quote from: dextrous63 on January 19, 2024, 12:29:59 PMI pity your horses.  They were having a whale of a time.

They're in their stable and the doors shut. At least they'll be dry and warm tonight.

PTFE is unnecessary in that situation Klondy.

Probably as the olive stops the water but I had some and I'm a belt and braces sort of guy.

I wouldn't know what a lockshield valve was if I fell over one !    Plumbing is beyond me, though I have many years ago tackled tiling and I did all the decorating in our house.  My loo got fixed today, new parts in the toilet, he had a job getting it away from the wall.  I'm not too keen on his silicone job though.

Quote from: klondike on January 19, 2024, 06:40:55 PMProbably as the olive stops the water but I had some and I'm a belt and braces sort of guy.

Fair enough.  If you ever need to replace the bit that actually screws into the radiator, then instead of using ptfe (I tend to use the yellow gas stuff which is thicker), get yourself some locktite55.  Much easier to work with I've never had any problems with it.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't know there was special gas stuff. I did replace and more than once the bottle switchover thing on my static caravan and if that involved any thread sealing which I don't recall I would have used the PTFE tape. 

I remember watching my father using some stringy fibre and boss white on some job or other he did. Watching him made me do virtually all my own home jobs later. I've given up on fixing cars now and can't even figure out what most of the bits under the bonnet even are these days.