How to fix rad issue

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

Hi All

We had a leak in our heating system and the plumber isolated it to one rad in the kitchen so he stopped water going to that one from the manifold and the leak was resolved so the leak is on the pipe under the floor between the manifold and rad


We really dont want to have to kango the floor so i was wondering is it possible to daisy chain the rad to another one by drilling through the wall and attaching a pipe ? Attached is a picture of the faulty radiator from the side closest to the wall that i would be hopping to drill thru to connect to a working rad

Thanks for any help

Your plumber should know best having looked at it, but you shouldn’t loose too much performance doing that, unless the run is very long / 2 big rads.
You might need to rebalance the system after this change.

It would be worthwhile pressure testing each pipe section between the manifold and the radiator to confirm the suspected leak. I would imagine there is very few joints in that run? Maybe just one below the radiator.

How big of a leak is suspected? How did you realise it existed?

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply - the presssure was dropping to zero over 1-2 days so the leak was easy to spot. Once he capped the manifold for that rad then pressure stopped dropping - you are correct about the joints , plumber reckons there is only one just under the rad but alas its under the concrete

Is this something i can do myself (daisy chain the rads? ) - im waiting for the plumber for ages and i need it sorted before September as i have a cold wife :-)

So I think capping this radiator and no longer not seeing a pressure drop is indicative of an issue on the supply to this rad - but it doesn’t confirm it. There could have been an issue elsewhere in the system which has coincidentally self remedied. It does happen.

First step would be to blank each pipe at the radiator and pressure test from the manifold to each blank. You will then see which pipe is at issue. If you wanted to do it yourself you could as a lesser solution connect one of the pipes to the manifold again, leave the rad valve off and see have you any pressure loss arising, repeat with other pipe separately.

Following that, you may be be able to get a clean lollipop stick or similar down between the pipe and lagging at the radiator to see if things are wet at the joint.

If one of the joints underfloor at the radiator is believed to be at issue, I would expose it at the point and repair. It’s not a huge task.

The bypass arrangement you describe would be my last resort. While it will lightly work, even if the radiators are back to back it’s going to look messy. You may yet need to consider it depending on where the leak is, but I would try and avoid.

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

but wont the joint be under the concrete ? Took look there and all seems dry around the lagging but its been a few months since it was capped so i presume i have to uncap and let the water run there ?

Plumber really doesnt want to do the job, keeps fobbing me off

Ya, skirting would come off, lift 3/4 boards of the floor and then carefully kango up around the pipe. Better part of a days work by the time it’s all back together.

But at the moment you are not certain that rad is even the issue, and if it is you don’t know which pipe!. So more testing needed!

Put one pipe back on the manifold, close both radiator valves and top up the system again. Leave for a few days to monitor.