Radiator removal problem (Ed.)

[Littlenic]

Hi all, I’ve tried to remove a radiator tonight as it’s just getting warm at the top and despite bleeding it I think it’s a build up of sludge.
I’ve removed plenty of radiators in my house but the majority are on flexible pipes. The one in our kitchen is on metal ridged pipes. I’ve undone the tail nuts and tried to drain the water. However, even with the nuts undone the radiator is so tight I can’t see the ends (or daylight) and even though I’ve tried to flex the pipe it doesn’t appear to be anywhere near enough to remove the radiator end from the valve end.
I’m guessing when we had it installed the plumber put the valves on the radiator to measure and gave no tolerance to get them off and just applied valves directly to the upright pipes and tightened them up.
Does that sound likely? Does anyone have a solution that will avoid a full drain down of the system?
I was wondering whether filling the radiator back up might in some way help fix the issue of it being cold?
Any thoughts gladly taken.
Thanks.

 

[Wayners]

You will get a little water dripping with this.
Undo the bottom nut on one side and valve turns out as rad comes towards you on the one side.
This works if the pipe moves up as you lift radiator.
If no movement and you can't lift pipe up, remove those floor caps and make the hole bigger so you can pull pipe back