Trouble removing tail from radiator

[Jever]

Hi,

I'm currently in the process of going through the house repainting my radiators and fitting new TRVs. It's all gone quite well so far until I ran into a problem with one of them.

The new TRVs all come with tails to screw into the radiators and so I've been taking the old ones out and replacing them, but one of them just won't budge. I've twisted so hard on it with a spanner that the edges have become rounded and so I can only attack it with a set of footprints, but still no movement.

I've tried WD40 and I also thought heating it with a blowtorch might soften things up, but no luck. It looks like it's only been put in with PTFE tape, so I don't understand why it's such a problem.

Can anyone here offer any insider tips?

Thanks in advance

Jever

 

[Dan Robinson]

Weetabix

 

[Mottie]

Stillsons.

 

[nitro23456]

Radiator spanner

https://www.screwfix.com/p/radiator...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CL_a7OTBwNYCFVWLdwodoR8Osg

 

[oldbuffer]

Is the radiator aluminium? Some of these have left hand threads on one side.

If standard steel, then as nitro23456 suggests.

 

[nitro23456]

Slide a bit of copper pipe over the aforementioned spanner to give more purchase/leverage if necessary.

 

[dilalio]

Spinach

 

[dilalio]

Radiator spanner

https://www.screwfix.com/p/radiator...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CL_a7OTBwNYCFVWLdwodoR8Osg

Won't work with these...

 

[Dan Robinson]

Slide a bit of copper pipe over the aforementioned spanner to give more purchase/leverage if necessary.

How strong do you think copper pipe is?

 

[Ihavenojob]

Refit the valve to the tail but not the pipe, then do it up and keep tightening the nut. Hopefully this will undo the tail, works most of the time.