Anyone with plumbing knowledge able to answer / help me on this please?

[gandalf72]

Can anyone advice me please if this will be a simple job that anyone can do or is it a phone call to a plumber please?

Problem is that on the main raidiator there is a leak coming from the righthand side that has abolt at the bottom and then at the top of that it looks like a metal dial that you can turn.

The leak feels like it is under the bolt at the bottom of the valve which is on at the top of the pipe.

Is it a case of just try and tighten the bolt at the bottom of the pipe or is it a case of replacing the whole valve, if it is I am right in thinking I have to drain entire system and will it be easy to remove the bolt or am i into a world of problems?

Thanks in advance.

[MsDG]

I am no expert but I know that raditors can have all sorts of valves depending on the install. It would help if ya can point out what type of valve you have.

If ya can't post a pic, try.... http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/88-0000

[BertRoot]

You may get away with undoing the thing and wrapping PTFE tape around the thread and retightening. Usually works for me if I get a leak from the end with no adjuster. Sorry can't explain better but here might help you out.

[gandalf72]

Thanks Dirty girl and bertroot here is the pic of the right hand side and lefdt hand side. Left hand side has no leak.

[Little John]

Personally i would just tighten the nut and see what happens, what have you got to loose? if it doesnt stop the leak, try putting some of the white sealing tape like bertrot said on the inside of the joint and try agian. if it still leaks then buy a new joint at least it isnt an expensive part.

as for draining the whole system you only need to drain it to a lower point than where the leak is, if the radiator is upstairs just drain enough water to drop the level below the upstairs radiators. if it is downstairs then you will need to do the whole lot.

[crocodile13]

Ur best bet would be to drain system and retighten the nut wrapping the thread in PTFE tape this will give a better seal . The quicker method would be to get a tub of " plunbers mate " and liberally coat the leaking thread this stuff dries hard and should stop any minor leaks Good luck.

[cosmicma]

isn't there an olive in there somewhere ?
you'll need to replace it as thats the most likely thing thats not sealing but try tightening it first it sometimes works

[geeWcee]

It will be better if you drain the system before attempting a repair. Just 'having a go' and tightening the joint may end up making it looser and you'll have pressurised water shooting out and up your walls.
Once youve tightened the joint, refill the system and see if the leaking has stopped. Most leaks like this are caused by lazy plumbing.

[Lighty]

Its on 15mm copper by the look of it, by your first post I thought it may have been microbore 10 or 8mm as thats always springing leaks from rad valves, however with it being on 15mm all you need to do is nip it up and squash the olive a little more you dont need to replace the olive as they dont really get squashed properly on radiators as they are never that tight, what happens usually with this sort of problem is that it tends to get kicked a lot by kids etc or more likely the hoover being banged into it frequently and over time it wobbles of the copper pipe a little. Just get yourself a good adjustable spanner and nip it up hardly anything really it will be enough to seal it, dont go mad though as you can end up pulling the pipe out of line then it will leak, You dont need to empty/drain the system for this but just make sure you are aware of how to do it incase you do anything wrong also bare in mind that if you do end up draining it and you are on a "Combi Boiler System" you will also need to switch the pump off on the combi as it will keep squirting water through the system no matter what and you will be sat there for days trying to drain it. PTFE is ok to use when assembling it but its really not a fix as it only seals threads and would eventually leak again anyway and you would be bleeding the rad regularly. PTFE actually comes graded for water and gas but not many people no that and there is a difference believe it or not. If you really do want to replace the Radiator Valve with a new one you can get them from B&Q for about £4 or upto £15 for a really nice thermostatically controlled one. You can also buy a can of pipe freezer which allows you to just freeze the water pipe below the valve and switch it quickly a full can is about £8 and gives you around 25 minutes to do the job.
:thumbs

[WotTheFook]

The olive in the joint has been crushed - tightening it will make it leak more. I've just been through the exact same situation because British gas have just fitted a new combi in my house and I had a radiator valve in the lounge that weeped as well (right hand one as well - spooky that).

You need to drain the system down and carefully cut the old olive from the pipe, fit a new one and retighten the joint.

WTF

[gandalf72]

Thanks everyone for your replys well I have been at it all day and still got the problem.

To answer a couple of points from previous posts:

I do have 15mm pipes and it is a condensing combi.

I have gone out and spent loads on spanners and wrenches etc and am tearing my hair out lol, thanks for all your help people much appreciated.

I have tried bleeding part of the raidator with the problem and no joy I am now thinking maybe about replacing the valve but not sure what to go for anyone able to point me in direction of a suitable one or will I be able to just go in and say I got a 15 mm pipe can I get a thermostat radiator valve? and do u think that this will do trick.

Oh yes and just to throw another spanner in works in between bleeding the one radiator I managed to create another leak under the sink not my day really but u got to try it is just a wee dribble but no matter how much I tighten it no it still leaks. this is the copper pipe that leads to the compresion valve that allows the watter to be fed to the boiler and leek appears to be at nut closest main pipe if u get my drift lol

I should maybe point out that I snapped the blue lever off of the pipe to feed the water in and then in process of trying to fix that I noticed that the olive is crushed onto pipe. That said it aint leaking from that side its the pipe from the main water leading to that part that the leak is at.

Thanks for everyones advice on this !!!!!!

[gandalf72]

The olive in the joint has been crushed - tightening it will make it leak more. I've just been through the exact same situation because British gas have just fitted a new combi in my house and I had a radiator valve in the lounge that weeped as well (right hand one as well - spooky that).

You need to drain the system down and carefully cut the old olive from the pipe, fit a new one and retighten the joint.

WTF

Ok not being funny here but how did u manage to remove the olive if it was crushed?

[Mav]

bleed the system get a new radiator valve from b & q or somewhere

take the old one off and replace theyre about 15 quid



http://www.diyfixit.co.uk/
goto central heating , radiators leaking


not a difficult task i know it may seem daunting,ull honestly wonder what you are fusiing about just go careful and dont rush


u may wanna think about fixing some cut off valves while your doing it so in future you can just take the radiator off

[gandalf72]

Thanks for the above much appreciated.

Ok still not getting this people with the living room radiator.

See the first pic at top, well see when I removed the bolt there the pipe sunk to the bottom ( bolt turned to bottom of pipe clockwise and then it seperates from pipe),but water started flowing over that pipe but not from radiator end, how do i stop the water from coming from that pipe to I see if I can get to the olive and see if its crushed or not?

Currently I got the cold water turned off at sink and I bled the radiator in living room to no more watter coming out from there.

So the only thing that is stoping me now is figuring out how to stop the water coming up out of the pipe once the bolt is undone so that i can attempt to replace olive and or thermostat.

Thanks in advance.

[gandalf72]

I just checked the other radiators in the house to make sure there was no water in them and there was none in the upstairs just air so I let that out and let the air out on the ground floor kitchen radiator but there was no water in it but here is the strange thing when I went to the one in the living room the one with the faulty leek it was full of water again.

Now just to recap earlier on I had drained this heater took about 1hour to do so and then tonight I went to unscrew the radiator after getting the new olive and new thermostat in case i need to fit it.

Now the valve that is leaking i detatch that from the radiator and there is water in that pipe that still wants to feed into the radiator now what I find strange is that the downstairs other radiator has no water in it but somehow this main one is the only 1 that does out of the 5 radiators in house.

I should point out that I put the mains back on but did not put the boiler on. but even with mains off the water still wants to come out of the pipe conected to the heater via this faulty valve.

Is there a way to stop this water going to that pipe?

Thanks in advance

[Lighty]

Like I said to you earlier you need to switch off the pump on the combi as the rads are fed from (Via) the combi not from your mains cold water feed

[gandalf72]

Thanks for that and I should have made it clearer boiler is off before I went to check for second time after clearing all the water in the radiators.

That said how on earth do u stop the water flowing I no u mentioned in earlier post about this freeze pipe thing is that my next step or is there a way to completely stop this water?

Thanks in advancce

[gandalf72]

Ok current state of affairs is that I have managed to drain all radiators (now not filling back up) but still when I unscrew the bottom bolt from right hand side of radiator the pipe is full of water and overflows when I start to loosen it.

How do I stop that?

Thanks in advance.

[Crags]

Hi mate, if you check the pipes around near you're boiler, you should find there's a valve coming off one of the pipes. You would normally put a hoze on the valve, and open it using a wrench - then drain the full system from the hoze to the outside, or down a drain or whatever. Draining a system is a right pain in the arse sometimes, but that's the general way of doing it, not via the radiators. That valve should empty the system completely.

If not, you can try the freeze cans, but in my experience, they don't work very well at all, and draining the system would be your best bet.

[Lighty]

Th combi loop is still full mate you gotta get all that water out as someone said there is a drain valve on it somewhere, whats your boiler model?