EADD Plumbing and DIY Thread v. Screwing Some Old Boiler Up Against the Wall

[BecomingJulie]

I thought I'd start a thread dedicated to plumbing problems rather than keep messing up Kate's Domestic Goddess Thread with boring pipes and stuff.

The thermostatic radiator valve in Jess's room was stuck closed, so her room was not getting heated. I found this helpful video on YouTube:
How to Fix a Thermostatic Radiator Valve If Your Radiator is Not Heating
As soon as I removed the sensor head, the valve plunger popped out and the radiator began getting warm. I re-fitted the sensor head and the radiator began cooling down again; so it must be the sensor head that is faulty.

For the time being, I have simply left the head off. This means the radiator will be running at full chat, since there is now nothing to shut off the flow when the room is up to temperature; but Jess is a nesh Southerner and keeps her radiator turned up to maximum most of the time anyway, so she probably will not notice (and we can always reduce the heating flow temperature using the thermostat on the boiler, if her room gets too hot).

If I can get another thermostatic valve of the same make and model, then I can just swap over the sensor head without draining the system down. And as luck would have it, one of my friends recently started a new job -- working in a plumber's merchant's store!

 

[Josh]

Great idea for a thread, I can talk about my plumbing all day.

Shall I get the photos out again?

 

[BecomingJulie]

True story: Not far from where I live, a huge new housing estate went up, about 20 years ago, and the builders specified Glow-Worm Combi Boilers in all the houses. These are particularly poorly-designed boilers, needing to run the fan at half speed all the time just to keep the pilot lit. The same Glow-Worm who made the SpaceSaver boiler, which has electronic ignition and only sparks up when there is a demand for heat. But that's not the real story. They also specified electric showers in all the houses, despite the fact that for the same price a thermostatic mixer valve attached to a combi boiler gives a better-performance shower (faster flow rate, higher temperature, better controllability and cheaper to run). But that's not the real story, either.

The plumbers who installed these boilers weren't used to combis, which deliver hot water at mains pressure since there is no gravity-fed water tank, and misconnected about half of the downstairs bogs with the hot and cold pipes swapped over -- meaning when the tap was pushed to red, the water in the washbasin came out cold, and when it was pushed to blue, the water came out hot. And the toilet cistern was rigged to fill with hot water.

Now, a middle-aged couple moved into one of these poky little brand-new houses after the last of their kids moved out. The husband discovered the fault with the downstairs bathroom and rang the building firm, who promised to send out a plumber to deal with it. Then he went out to work. Later that morning, the wife, who was suffering with symptoms of the Menopause, phoned the doctor; then she took off the self-locker so he could let himself in, and returned to bed to lie down and wait for him.

An hour or so later, the plumber arrived. He knocked on the door, and shouted through the letterbox, - I've come about your hot flushes! - It's not locked, replied the woman, Let yourself in, I'm upstairs. As the plumber entered, he remarked out loud, - Hot flushes, eh? I've been very busy with that sort of thing lately. There's a lot of dodgy downstairs plumbing around these parts!

 

[felix]

My dad was a plumber by trade. :D

My only and first advice in this thread is to not turn your taps off too tight, cos you'll just end up deforming the rubber washers, which leads to dripping taps.

Close them until the water stops running, and no more. It's that simple.

 

[BecomingJulie]

Rubber washers? All the taps at Montoya Mansions are single-lever, ceramic-cartridge mixers. AKA God's Own Taps.

When the combination boiler is replaced, I'm having a conventional boiler instead, with a twin-coil unvented hot water cylinder (so I can keep the same taps; they don't work with gravity-fed hot water, and I've no room for a tank in the loft anyway) and immersion heater, and an evacuated-tube solar water heating panel on the outside privy roof. May not even need a differential thermostat, if I can use the telemetry data from the inverter on the solar PV panels on the main roof to determine how brightly the Sun is shining and therefore, when to run the pump. Or I might go for another combi, but with a single-coil unvented cylinder, heated only by the Sun, feeding into its "cold" water inlet; the combi should be able to make up the temperature by the last few degrees, on days when the solar panel is not providing enough heat by itself. This, though, relies on having a combi boiler which can modulate right down almost to nothing.

Still, all that is a few years down the line yet .....

 

[koneko]

Julie, Julie help me with my bath mixer tap plumbing. I'll even make you tea and scones on my Denby set :D

Great thread!

 

[tiggerific]

I had a plumber come out one night when the radiator fell off the wall, he duct taped it back on to the wall and crimped the pipes shut, that was his idea of an emergency repair. But if anyone knows why is it when I turn on taps I hear a banging noise?? it drives me crazy

 

[koneko]

My cats seem to know where the hot radiator pipes run under the floors, they lie in strange places, I'm sure that's why.

What's with gurgling though. Noisy things under the flooors.

 

[felix]

Great thread title.

Suggestion for V2: "Inspecting the pipes up my back passage".

:D

 

[BecomingJulie]

UPDATE: Fingers crossed, I think my poorly radiator is poorly no longer!

I got hold of another valve (did I mention an old puffin' pal of mine has just landed a job with a plumber's merchant?) which is a different make but the sensor head fastens to the valve body with the same thread (tested first with the plastic protective cap that can also be used as an emergency shut-off device, apart from the fact the plumber who installed the system in the first place invariably chucked all of those in the skip a long time ago). The sensor head plunger (that didn't seem to project as far as the old, broken one; but since it was off all the time, that could well have been the actual fault with it.

New sensor head screwed on fine, turned temperature up to 5 and switched boiler on. Whirrrrrr *kachunk* tiktiktiktiktiktik VHOOMPH, ignition sequence complete. Radiator began getting hot. Turned temperature down to 0. After one hour with the boiler running, the radiator and its pipes were decidedly lukewarm. Whereas the pipes to the downstairs radiators (they are all branched off two main 22 mm. pipes which run along under the floor of the corridor upstairs and then down to the downstairs rooms, or across through the floor void to the upstairs rooms; Spook loves to sit in my doorway, right where the heating pipes pass under the floor) were still too hot to touch. And as I turned up the temperature and listened, I could hear noises that definitely sounded like water beginning to flow!

So, I think this one could be a win. Even if not, as I have got the complete assembly anyway, I will just have to bite the bullet, drain the system, replace the main body of the valve and re-pressurise it all again. Going to be fun getting corrosion inhibitor in -- the only way I can see of doing that will be to remove the blanking plug from one end of a radiator and introduce it there, using a funnel with a short length of hose on the end .....

 

[felix]

Sounds good.

Presumably you'd need to drain a radiator before introducing the corrosion inhibitor? How much do you need to put in? And would the system then somehow mix it throughout when pressurised?

 

[BecomingJulie]

I'd hafta drain the whole lot anyway to replace a duff valve. Could fit in-line screwdriver-operated isolating valves, so individual radiators could be worked on in future, but Sod's Law says I'd never need to.

I'd expect all the pumping, heating and cooling to mix the water and corrosion inhibitor pretty thoroughly.

BTW, left new 'stat at 0 overnight, radiator stone cold after boiler on for 1 hour this morning. Think it's fixed, fingers crossed!

 

[felix]

How much do you need to put in?

 

[BecomingJulie]

Don't know, as I was out on a shopping mission while my plumber did that part of the job. I suppose it will say how much to use on the container.

 

[felix]

Ah, now we're getting to the truth. It sounded like you did all that stuff yourself.

 

[BecomingJulie]

All I did this time was screw the new sensor head onto the old valve, say a quick prayer to Loki and Nerthus, and it worked.

Draining down, replacing the valve and re-pressurising was the nuclear option if that failed ..... Might still have to do that, if all the adjustment is at one end; but we'll see.

 

[felix]

Julie, can we change this to a general DIY thread, please? I'm sure there used to be one but I cannae find it.

Progress so far on the loft flooring project today:

Chiselled out three channels for that cable, rounded off the rough corners, clipped them in place, and fitted two pieces of decking securely. Had to stop because it was getting late and making a racket.

Now I have a plan I'll be cooking with gas tomorrow. Feels good. %)

 

[BecomingJulie]

O.K. This thread is now re-titled; and all matters of all aspects of plumbing, building, electrics and general home maintenance are welcome.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Ah, DIY - my life's work (and I don't mean masturbation, though obviously I have plenty of experience there as well). I have a love/hate relationship with DIY - I hate doing it, but when I do I have to do it perfectly. Which is why it can take me a year to do just one room because I tend to renovate rather than decorate...

 

[felix]

O.K. This thread is now re-titled; and all matters of all aspects of plumbing, building, electrics and general home maintenance are welcome.

Thank you kindly, madam.

Ah, DIY - my life's work (and I don't mean masturbation, though obviously I have plenty of experience there as well). I have a love/hate relationship with DIY - I hate doing it, but when I do I have to do it perfectly. Which is why it can take me a year to do just one room because I tend to renovate rather than decorate...

Buy this t-shirt:

Loft progress, day 2:

God damn the auto-focus playing up on my DSLR and my fucked eyes.

We now have an exquisite landing platform and a shitload of offcuts. I'd love to get my hands on someone's unused bits of decking board so I can keep up the quality and thickness, oo-er missus.

Maybe someone on my local FB group has some decking boards they'll be willing to give up for a few cans of beer. Might try that next.

Had to stop cos I need to do some noisy drilling next and I think I've made enough of a racket for one day. Sorry neighbours. :D