Artic spray freeze kit jacket too long for pipe leading to TRV on radiator- can I cut the jacket?

Is it a pressurised system or a low pressure system if its the latter you can always bung the system

 

If you have drain off valves fitted downstairs, why not read up on how to drain down and refill...it's not that hard.

 

Ok i'll teach you a trick but you will still need refill your system just not as much.

Firstly make sure the entire rad system is cold and you have turned off the boiler as well as pulled out the fuse so no one can accidental turn it on.


Go round every radiator except the one you want to change the valve on and turn off the TRV and the lockstat so it traps the pressure and water in each radiator.

once you done this, drain the rest of the system. It will be only that in the radiator you are going to work on and the water in the tubes that will drain.
Change your TRV, when all is back together and happy, open up all the radiators TRV and Lockstat valves and topup the system checking for leaks obviously. Dont forget to bleed that radiator.

Replace the fuse and turn on when you are happy with your work.

You are done.

 

if its a seasled system, all you have to do is remove system pressure. Then you can break one joint without loose of water apart from the odd drop.jobs a goodun.

 

......yes, but can I cut the friggin jacket ?

 

No idea, never used a freeze kit and probably never will. Extra expense that probably won't work properly anyway.

My best guess, try it and see if it work but don't blame me if it don't work.

 

NO you friggin can't, its that size for a reason IE to form an ice plug in the pipe, Happy Now

 

The boiler (and pump) should definitely be off, but that in itself doesn't de-pressurise the system.

You de-pressurise by opening a bleed screw - the one on the rad you're removing would make sense - and bleed until it stops. Your pressure gauge will read 'zero' and you are de-pressurised.

As Nigel points out (#7), if you do this, you'll be surprised by how little water comes out the pipe when you remove the valve. This is because air has to get in that pipe to allow the water out! It'll go 'glug-glug-glug' rather than whoooosh...

The rad will be the same - water won't gush out, but will also glug - mind you, there's a lot of water in a rad, so you need to be ready to catch that...

Pressurised systems are actually better to work on in this respect - if this was a vented system, you'd be looking at holding off gallons of very willing water (or doing a tricky 'bunging' job up in the header tank).

So, shut off all the rad valves if you wish as Fire says (in which case take careful note of the setting of each Lockshield - how many exact turns each one is from fully closed, 'cos you should open them the exact amount afterwards), and also shut off the valves to the rad you're removing.

Then slacken the TRV valve join from that rad, and catch the rad water coming out. (If the pipes to the valves have 'play' in them, you could try simply slackening both valve/rad joints and then lifting the rad off its brackets, folding it flat down in front of you so that its top is now sitting on the floor. This way the valve end will be higher up and most of the rad's contents will still be in there.

Anyhoo, either drain the rad or lift it off as above, and then open the TRV into a pan - you'll find probably only a pint or so of water will come out, and then it'll reduce to a small gluggy trickle. This will not be under pressure.

Whip off the TRV and fit the new one. Keep a finger over the pipe end - or plug it with, ooh, a pencil covered in cloth, or a rubber bung, or summat - whilst you prepare the new TRV; compound on t'olive and t'thread, etc.

Then, take plug away - trickle - new TRV on.

Do everything up, open valves on that rad, open bleed screw on ditto, use top-up loop/tap to refill system and bleed all air from that rad oot t'screw.

Chust have lots of shallow containers and towels/cloths etc handy. Some of the rad water can be murky.

But, really, don't worry about lots of water - the largest amount by far will be what's in that rad.