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RADIATOR INSTALLATION DIY guide on how to replace a rad. Step by step guide including draining the system down , Re piping and connecting new radiator valves. how to instal a radiator, or how to replace a radiator. So, this radiator here, I’m going to swap this radiator. I want to put a bigger radiator in here. So, the tails at the bottom, I’m going to have to change them, and alter them. I’m going to drain the system down, so I’m going to show you how, different options really, of how you can drain a system. I’ve also got a radiator upstairs that I’m going to move, so we’ll be lifting some floorboards up, and things like that as well. So, I’m going to try and put as much as possible in this video, as I can.

So first thing, first job, what we’ll do is I will drain the system down. So, let’s go and have look. We’ll have a look at the boiler now, and I’ll show you how we can drain it down later, but then I’ll show you some other options as well. So, yeah, let’s go and have a look now. So this system, this is a combi boiler system. It’s got a pressure gauge on the front, so all we need to do is just drain the pressure out of the system. And we’ve got an Omega Filter on this, so I could quite easily just drain it from that filter, but I’m going to drain it a different way, just to show you a few different options of draining a system. So that, draining from the filter would obviously be the easiest option if you have a filter.

First of all, I’m going to turn the power off to the boiler, and then we’ll go in the back, where the radiator is. We’ll lift the carpets up, lift the floors up, and we’ll cut into the pipework below the radiator. Let’s go under there now and we’ll have a look. Just a little tip when you’re lifting carpets, sometimes they’re a bit awkward to lift up. I mean, this would be quite easy to be honest, but I just get my grips, and just pull on there. Just a little tip, like I say, with this one, probably didn’t need, you know, we’ll just lift the carpet up.

When I’ve lifted the carpet up here, we’ve already got a trap, so it’s a lot easier. Normally you’re not going to see that, you’re going to have to cut the boards. Probably, we’ll have to cut the boards over here, but we’ll have a look. I’m just going to mark the boards. Very important, if you start lifting loads of boards up it can be very, very hard sometimes, like a jigsaw puzzle putting them all back. I always just mark them if I can, and then that way I know which ones, where I have to put them back down after.

We’ve got the pipework there, so we can see the pipes. That’s the T that’s going to this radiator, you can just see his elbows there, and then that one’s just on the T. What we’ll do, I’m going to cut this. I’m going to cut that pipe, and then I’m just going to drain it under this floor. The other options for draining down would be, you might find that you’ve got a drain off like that somewhere, and then obviously, if you do, you can just connect your hose onto there. And then, the other option are your filters, you might use a washing machine hose. I use this quite a lot for cleaning the filters out, and then there’s that hose as well, if you’re going to fully drain the system.

As always, if I’m going to cut into pipe I always make sure I’ve got a few Speedfit cap ends with me, just so I can push them over if it gets a bit too much. One thing to be very careful, if you’re going to cut into pipes under a floor, and you’re going to drain under a floor, make sure there’s no electrical cables or anything like that around. Make sure that if there is any water it’s not going to do any damage to anything. So, what I’ve done now, I’ll just start to cut into this. Now, bearing in mind there’s a lot of pressure in this at the moment, so there’ll be a lot of water and it’s going to splash all over.

If we just do it a little bit, and then just let the pressure come out, and then you’ll see there down. There’s not a lot, much water. I could’ve, quite easily, with one hand, have just pushed that on there. And on the other side. I’ve controlled it there if I need to, but now I can connect the hosepipe on there quite easily. I’ve got my hosepipe now, and I’ve just got a push fit valve on there. You could use just a socket, or an elbow, just anything that’s push fit. Or you could, if you wanted, just put a hosepipe directly over the top of the pipe, but I just find it easier this way.

Then, whichever part you want to use to drain down, just connect that on, and then now, that’s just draining out. All controlled, there’s not that much water under the floor really. It’s not the best way to do it, obviously if you’ve got a drain off valve then use a drain off, or a filter. But, this is sort of like worse case scenario, and as you can see from that, there’s still not that much water.

Allen Hart

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