A friend of mine (no, honest) had a leaking radiator valve. A work colleague of hers fitted a new valve but she still has a problem with it so I said I'd take a look.
The new valve is ok on the fit to the 15mm up-pipe (even though the existing olive was used) but there is a constant leak where it connects to the radiator.
On the radiator end there is a large brass knuckle like ball with an nut around it that screws onto the new valve (bit like a large version of an olive really). I have cleaned off the thread of the nut as best I could with a wire brush (It was very corroded) and access is difficult, applied PFTE tape and reconnected the radiator. Although the rate is reduced it still leaks from this connection. I repeated the dis-assembly, clean and re-assembly a couple of times but could get it no better.
I suspect that the thread of the nut on the radiator side may be damaged (she has said she has had a few problems with it over the years resulting in it being disconnected a few times and tightened many others). The leak seems to be coming through the thread side of the nut rather than the end which butts up against the knuckle.
Now I have committed to helping I feel I owe her to get it sorted so wonder what the next step would be.
Often the radiator connectors come away from the radiator (as they are normally shipped without them) so I am thinking that replacing this would do the trick. Though with this one there seems to be no immediately obvious way of unscrewing it. Do some of these connectors need some special tool to undo them from the radiator? Also can you buy the connectors from general plumbers merchants?
Any other ideas from anyone would be useful. Thanks in advance.
The new valve is ok on the fit to the 15mm up-pipe (even though the existing olive was used) but there is a constant leak where it connects to the radiator.
On the radiator end there is a large brass knuckle like ball with an nut around it that screws onto the new valve (bit like a large version of an olive really). I have cleaned off the thread of the nut as best I could with a wire brush (It was very corroded) and access is difficult, applied PFTE tape and reconnected the radiator. Although the rate is reduced it still leaks from this connection. I repeated the dis-assembly, clean and re-assembly a couple of times but could get it no better.
I suspect that the thread of the nut on the radiator side may be damaged (she has said she has had a few problems with it over the years resulting in it being disconnected a few times and tightened many others). The leak seems to be coming through the thread side of the nut rather than the end which butts up against the knuckle.
Now I have committed to helping I feel I owe her to get it sorted so wonder what the next step would be.
Often the radiator connectors come away from the radiator (as they are normally shipped without them) so I am thinking that replacing this would do the trick. Though with this one there seems to be no immediately obvious way of unscrewing it. Do some of these connectors need some special tool to undo them from the radiator? Also can you buy the connectors from general plumbers merchants?
Any other ideas from anyone would be useful. Thanks in advance.