Towel Rad Fitting Problem

[diy_monkey]

Hello, One & All.

I have just bought a new towel rad for my bathroom, I have removed the old rad no problem, but I have now discovered that the new radiator sits further away from the wall when fitted, than the old rad did. Basically, the pipes do not line up with valves on the new rad.

The pipes point upwards, they dont come out of the floor, but go off to the left and into the wall on the other side of the room.

Is there any way i can bend the pipes without kinking them, so that I can get them to line up with the rad valves? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[charliejamesuk]

You may find it easier to get some new fixing brackets for the new rad that place if tighter to the wall?

 

[diy_monkey]

Thanks, that sounds like a good suggestion, but if at all possible I'd like to keep the original brackets, as the original rad sat quite close to the wall and if i kept it like that it would make it difficult to hang things over the towel rad.

 

[sye]

best bet is to simply cut the pipe within the floor and re-new leaving the excisting in the wall just cut off and decorate over hope this helps
sye

 

[diy_monkey]

I'm not sure that i can do that. All of the walls are made of breeze block and all the floors are made of a (very) solid concrete. the flat was built in the 1950's, so the central heating system was added later, which means all of the pipes are expsosed and sit on the oustside of the walls.

 

[john.bell55]

What size are the pipes? Any chance of a photo?

 

[diy_monkey]

They are 15mm and it looks like this

 

[wheeto]

No problem! Just unsolder the elbow and fit a new section and new solder elbow. You will need to drain the system down and get the pipes dry first though.

You should be able to do a couple of new bends for just using a spring which costs less than £5.

 

[diy_monkey]

OK, I’m a bit of a layman so, I'm going to need to clarify that. When you say elbow, do you mean the 90 degree join at the bottom of the upright (one of them is actually a T junction)?

If so, are you saying, remove the join, rebend the pipes and rejoin with new elbows?

How hard would you say that would be for someone who’s never done it before?

 

[wheeto]

Hi,

Yes that's what I meant. To get a nice neat job you should de-solder everything from the pipe, so that you just have the two "naked" hirozontal pipe ends. These ends then need to be thoroughly cleaned with wire wool in preparation for resoldering. You might get away with re-using the drain valve, but I'd recommend using new copper tube for to rise up to the rad, new elbow, new 'T' piece and new drain valve. When soldering the drain valve, remember to remove the plug first so it doesn't melt.

As for the tails that rise to the radiator, the easiest way for a beginner who doesn't mind wasting about 20cm of tube is to get two pieces of tube that are too long, and bend about a 45 degree angle in the middle. Where you trim the tube on the side of the bend that goes int othe elbow will dictate how far out the resulting upright piece is. You then trim the other end to get the right vertical height for where you want to hang the towel radiator. Apologies if this doesn't make sense, I'll have another go if necessary!

As for how easy it is ... have you ever soldered coppes tubes before? New tubes onto existing pipework? I don't know whether it's within your capabilities, but it's really the only way to do this and get a professional-looking result.

If you want to try a bit of a bodge first, insert a bending spring into the existing pipes that rise of to the rad. You will then be able to bend the pipes a little (maybe just enough!) to fit the new radiator without them kinking.

Hope this helps a little,

 

[diy_monkey]

That makes perfect sense thank you, and thank you everyone else for your help. I’ll consider my options and go from there.

If anyone else has any radically different ideas, please feel free to chip in.

Thanks again.

 

[john.bell55]

You could centralise the pipes, and reduce it to 10mm plastic. The radiator would hide most of the pipework

 

[dontknowitall]

If it's your first soldering and you're going to try it, I'd buy Yorkshire (pre-soldered) fittings as they're much easier. Then again you could buy a few fittings (they're about 30p each) and try your hand at soldering on a workbench for practice.

Also, look on youtube as I'm sure there's a tutorial on soldering!

 

[wheeto]

You could centralise the pipes, and reduce it to 10mm plastic. The radiator would hide most of the pipework

I can't help thinking that the pipes, along with a huge reducing coupler, will look pants behind a nice new towel rail.

 

[HoodedClaw]

just out of interest but have you tried asking your local independent plumber? If you do all the bits you can yourself (hang rad, drain system) and ask plumber to just bend and join up - it wouldn't take an hour of labour.. not much at all.

 

[GPSNewcastle]

I was thinking that. If you drain the system, get the pipes dry, hand the rad and then ask the plumber to connect the pipes and fill it up it may well be cheaper and would save you the hassle.

 

[john.bell55]

I can't help thinking that the pipes, along with a huge reducing coupler, will look pants behind a nice new towel rail.

What huge reducing coupler are you thinking of?
I was thinking of chrome compression elbow and Peglar chrome reducing elbow.
The plastic would go up behind rad and mostly out of sight.
It looks a lot better than 2 bits of copper going into a nice chrome rad.

 

[wheeto]

OK well you've lost me, sorry

Having extended the current copper (and not quite sure why 10mm either?), why would any pipes end up behind the rad? Did you see the pic the OP posted?

 

[ferret]

Just use angled rad valves pointing back to wall with a compression elbow down onto a compression coupling , easy for diy if you cant solder , if you can still use angled valves but with soldered street or elbow to soldered coupling , simples