Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
- Messages
- 7,735
- Location
- Teesside, England
Fixed my gurgling condensor boiler by removing a 3 foot ice plug from the drain
Have insulated it, but its baltic where it is, so it may happen again
Today I had a dripping TRV, which looks like a typo for a water leak on a Blackpool sports car, but strangely enough, not this time
I could turn this into another long-winded missive full of double entendres and naff similes, but since it's nippier in here than a Barbara Windsor film I'll keep it short (it's always this short when it's cold) and merely relate the facts in a straightforward, non-pontificative and unelaborated fashion, to wit:
I was in me bedroom, see (...and now I have Welsh accent in my head ) installing a cloth sheathing to the Continental quilt (there's lovely) when I chanced to notice a wisp of steam, from the general direction of the carpet, isnit?
Now you can call me a devout traditionalist but I don't subscribe to the Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen school of over-blown, pompous and faddy floor coverings like parquet veneer, rush mats and elephant hide, and try as I might I really couldn't remember buying a wool/polyester blend carpet whose USP was that it steamed of its own volition.
Closer inspection revealed, unsurprisingly, that the central heating was losing water.
Well blow me, I said, but got no response from the full-size poster of Kimberley Nixon clad only in welding mask, TIG gauntlets and gold stilettos. I say Kimberley Nixon, she has a mole in the same place as her so it must be.
Closer inspection still identified the culprit: a Drayton TRV4. Unscrewing the thermal cartridge (that's the knobby bit on the top for you central heating engineers) showed that water was escaping past the gland seal.
Off I went to the Screwfix website where I was edified to discover that they don't sell replacement seals, only complete new TRVs at £30 a pop.
Thirty quid, I muttered, I've got rid of wives for less. So I turned to the Duck for inspiration (other search engines are available) and found that Drayton offer a plastic valve setting tool and pair of new seals for £18. Eighteen quid? May as well buy a new valve for 30!
Then I had a vague recollection that somewhere in the boxes, bags, punnets and duckets around the place I have a spare TRV4. When I fitted... erm, got a Corgi-registered installer to fit... my new combi in 2005 I removed the old radiator from the bathroom and replaced it with a heated towel rail fed from the boiler. As best practice suggests, I used two lockshields instead of a TRV, hence the spare.
A good ransack ensued, and then I went and looked for the TRV
Drayton in their clever-dickiness designed the TRV4 to have its gland seal replaced without the need to drain the heating so I thought: Aha! There was a crap 1980s band if ever there was one... and then conceived a cunning plan. At this point you'd expect me to go all Blackadder so I won't. I merely removed the gland seal from the spare valve, reasoning that as it's done 15 years less work than the leaky one, it should be a simple swap. It was.
I turned the heating back on.
Ballcocks, I expostulated, as the bloody thing began dripping worse than a grandmother at a Take That concert.
Right then, what are the chances that if I swap the seals back and then change the whole valve, it'll stop the leak? Hmm, I have half an hour before I need to taxi my mother to her sister's.
Out to the garage, grab a length of Tricoflex, soften it in a kettle of water until it'll push onto the drain stub. Open the cock and let water drain. Spanners, tape, valve swapped, refill system. Wahey, no leak from the TRV!
Drive mother. Come back.
House like a bloody fridge. Climb in loft, boiler flashing more lights than an armed response unit on the way to Asda for some Krispy Kremes. Pressure gauge on the stop.
Bleed off the pressure, reset boiler, it tries to light but then trips out again. Repeat until p1553d off and with hands by now colder than a penguin's scrotum.
Lacking a penguin, warm hands on own scrotum.
Find manual. Delete crap joke about Fawlty Towers.
Flow switch? Whaddya mean flow switch? It was working fine two hours ago, how can the flow switch have died?!
Fanny about with flow switch plunger.
Remember that I was supposed to collect mother from her sister's.
Poke screwdriver in flow switch, boiler lights. Halleflippinglujah.
Collect mother. Remind her that she lives somewhere else. Take her there. Come home.
House colder than Ice Station Zebra. Climb in loft. Find screwdriver has fallen out of flow switch.
Notice that flow switch plunger now has more resistance. Rush off to Ladbrokes to place bet that system had airlock.
Refit flow switch. Heating fires up. TRV still not leaking.
Feel smug, especially with £30 saving. Celebrate with cold beer and bowl of ice cream.