Thank you!! I was about to call a plumber to help me fit a smaller rad! I had no idea those unions were available! Now I can change the rad myself!! Excellent video! Second time you've helped me this weekend!
This guy is legend…the amount off money I have saved and the diy knowledge I have learned is mostly down to him. Great guy folks…I wholeheartedly thank him for his videos
Thanks for the tip. I recently decided to change a towel rail in a property I rent out. I measured centre of pipe to centre of pipe thinking this was correct. the plumber had actually said it's 600mm, but as he hadn't measured it, i assumed he was wrong. He returned about a week later to carry out several jobs, but when he came to fitting the towel rail there was a problem. Luckily I managed to take it back and buy the 600mm one, which I should have bought in the first place. Now we need a new radiator in our own house and it'll be fitted by the same plumber so I don't want to make the same mistake again. Regards from Whitley Bay
So glad I watched this, been searching for ages for a specific (non-metric) size, now I know what to do! Not been able to make any progress with our bathroom refurb plus the old rad is worryingly rusty along the bottom...Thanks for posting and I love the guest appearance from your little helper :D
Thanks mate- nice plain English! Got an old rad under a window and when our cat wanted to go out of the window, as I opened it in bare feet I noticed the carpet was wet and the rad was leaking so thanks to Maisie, or I wouldn't have spotted it. Cats and plumbing? Well good combo for me- just have to replace the rad now! Cheers again.
Thank You!!! Just having walls re-plastered and taking the opportunity to replace some very old radiators. Also bonus points for keeping Shadow in the video and not re-shooting it.
@@dereton33 they get everywhere! Looks like I might be keeping the old rad anyway, the valve outlets for the current rad are 3/4" and it's a 1500mm rad, not sure what bits I would need to be able to fit a new rad without draining the whole system and fitting new valves.
Thank you so much for posting this, right to the point and incredibly helpful, even answering what would have been my follow up google searches. Thanks!
Thank-you this is just what I wanted to know about what size to order if you have old ones and can't find the right size. One other thing I wanted to check though was for really old houses (100 years old) where the pipework runs along the wall instead of out of the floor, should I also go for smaller ? B&Q's website advises to go for bigger if your pipes run along the wall and the extra pipes can be cut but they agree with you and say go shorter if the pipes come out of the floor. Thanks
All your videos are so straightforward & helpful! You've saved me a lot of head-scratching and headaches. Thank you! Love Shadow, the plumber's apprentice :D
Hi, in the process of changing the rads in my house at the moment. An example would be a 1000mm long but they do not have TRVs on them. They are the old type inlet valve. The distance between centres of the pipe is approximately 1030mm Can I simply buy a new 1000mm rad and TRVs and fit them without trouble or would I get in trouble because there is not enough room for the TRV? From my understanding I would need approximately 45mm either side of pipe centres so for a 1000mm rad I would need 1090mm for pipe centres in order to fit a TRV. Many thanks for the helpful videos too they have been really helpful in the past!
@@dereton33 great thank you. I will purchase the rads and see if I am short I can always buy the extensions. Would prefer to short rather than too much of a gap. Ideally just want to replace like for like with added TRV. Hopefully I can do that
great video thank you. i didn't know about those extending union parts but they solve my dilemma in changing old rads for new and could save me a great deal of cash. good on you mate
Really helpful video. Thank you. Can I ask what is the limit in terms of going smaller? My radiators have been removed and I am looking to replace and so only have the distance between the pipes to go by. This is 81cm and the radiator available are either 82cm or 66cm. Is 66cm too small? Thank you in advance! Ps my cat always get in the way too. Hi shadow!
Need quick advice,about to change bathroom rad,it measures 64cm wide if I purchase 60cm wide rad and use the extension your talking about will this be ok.
Brilliantly explained. Wasn’t expecting the bit on imperial sizes - I am changing an imperial sized rad which is around 960mm wide so guess I better go for a 950 or 900mm. Thanks for the tutorial!
Brilliant video thank you, I have a 1920mm X 400 radiator I want to change out, looks like an 1800mm is the closest size I can get with the metric sizes, something like an 1800x500 should hopefully do nicely as got a lot of spare height room, would a 60mm valve extension either side be the correct way to do it?
Hi Al. watched loads of your videos but maybe you could do one on accurately calculating BTU for sizing up radiators for rooms. I'm no plumber but do a lot of maintenance on housing and have gained a lot of knowledge on plumbing through doing this. I know there are calculators online but I want to know if there is a way to do it in your head as it were? many thanks. Marc
Thanks for this, it’s saved us so much money on refurbishing our family home to a tight budget. We have a current radiator that measures 2180mm width by 50mm height and it’s impossible to find anything that long. Screw fix do a 2000mm by 300mm rad, so with a couple of valve extensions I can at least give it a go. Thanks again!
Good video, thanks for uploading. I have a radiator that is just short of 1300mm in width. I'm looking for a column-style replacement and nearest i can find is 1193mm. Will this be ok?
Great video, but what about wall to centre measurements? I have 1989s rads rusting from the inside out and they're all imperial but they're also about 43mm wall to centre of valve. Any tips on putting, say, a new rad with 50mm wall to centre, or will the pipes need adjusting?
Just measured my radiator at 475mm width, can't seem to find that size anywhere, will the pipework need altering or will a 500mm one go in with a little squeeze?.....
Hi Al , thank you for this video , I will have approximately 180mm to make up overall before my new double rad will meet my TRV and lock shied , for this rad I do not want to drain down the system and am thinking of using the extension pieces , the old rad is a single and could be 30 yrs or more old , I have very little movement on the pipe work , the outlets on the new rad will not line up with TRV or lock shield so I was wondering if it is possible to put a set on the the extension pieces as I see you can get the up-to 120mm or is the extension piece made of a “ non bending material “ or can I make my own set out of 15 mm copper and connect to the new rad with a compression coupling? . Regards, Dermot Kelly .
Thanks for the video - I've bought a 1000mm rad to replace an old old old 960mm rad... Am I going to need to lift the floor and alter the feed do you think or should I take it back and get a 900mm rad?
@@dereton33 Cheers for that. I reckon I might still need to get under the laminate flooring. I don't think the feed and return legs are long enough for the new rad - I'm hoping there might be some spare length. Otherwise I'll have to use the old olive and valve nuts on the new valves and that's just not cricket. I just watched your video on removing olives and I did wonder if you've ever used a multitool to remove the pipe top from the olive upwards. I'm considering doing that but am a bit worried about sending that much vibration around the system... Cheers again and lover the channel - I never got an apprenticeship after I got my city and guilds cause I was too old so getting some seasoned advice is awesome.
P.s. request your next video to be how to deal with accessing under floor pipes when the bu**ars who laid the floor locked everything down with skirting and laminate
Great video, especially the part about to fix the sizing problem (imperial to metric). I'm considering new wooden flooring, and I've got the imperial radiators, they seem to work fine but the the pipes connecting the radiator radiator look really rusty, is it easy to replace them or shall I just bite the bullet and replace the radiators? Thanks very much in advance.
Hi Al, i need to buy radiator tails for a couple of radiators i'm replacing. Any chance you could do a short video explaining where i take my measurements from and to so as to get the correct length tails., Thanks Steven
Thanks for the video. My client has 380 width radiators? I want to change like for like and cant seem to fit them. I know I can get 400mm width ones. What do you suggest? Thanks
Shadow either wants to be a big star in the movies, or he/she is hungry. Quick - sign Shadow up - that cat's a natural! LOL Thanks for another great vid.
Another great video Al. Just one question.I’ve worked out the radiator size & what size union I need, the only problem I’ve got is that my pipe work is micro pipe (8mm) when I changed a valve in the kit was a reduced which I screwed into the radiator. How would I get over this if I bought a union as they all seem to fit 15mm pipe work?
You used to be able to get a reducer to fit in the union taking it down to 8 mm, if they are not available any more, then you may be able to buy a 15 mm to 8 mm coupling.
Hi, great video, love the nosey cat (got one ourselves).You mention at the beginning about old rads rusting.I purchased 2 Myson replacement rads for my bathroom (first attempt) and they started to show rust on the bottom seam after 2-3yrs. Someone told me I should have flushed them out before I fitted them. Are you aware of this? I used some extensions when fitting, made the job so much easier (no leaks :) thanks for the great vids.
With the extentions shown you wind them into the radiator and the other end do you wind the t.r.v/lockshield onto that and then lower that onto the pipe tails?,thanks
hi there. What about the depth of the radiator? I am concerned that a new one wouldn't line up with the existing pipes as I'm thinking of changing an old narrow radiator to a new deeper one.
Help .... need to replace old double rad in hallway as leaking - measured exactly as yr video and measurements are height 609.6 mm (24")/width 1193.8 mm (47")/depth 57.15 mm (2 1/4") - can you tell me what size to aim for please... ty
Hi Jill, if you cannot get that exact size, which I very much doubt, aim to get the next smallest size down if your old rad is more than 15 mm larger, not in hight just the width. All rads are measured in mm these days the nearest would be 600 mm high 1200 mm width, this width is slightly large,r but not more than the 15 mm guide rule, so that rad size would be ok. Rad sizes sourced from Screwfix.
Me again Al 🙄 Lol! Ancient upstairs rads, each rad has 2 pipes rising from under floorboards, then ugly pipes connect rads along/through plasterboard walls, front bed rad to box room, back bed rad to bathroom. If I buy rads with centre connections, can I connect each one to the rising pipes, and get rid of the wall pipes that connect them? Sorry if it's a dumb question, but I can't find answer by googling! 🤔 Many Thanks.
I want to fit a new towel rail onto where my radiator is... radiator is 508mm .. what size off heated towel rail would i go for to fit existing fixtures? Thanks.
ahh bugger. thought id get lucky. i commented on 1 of your other vids about sliding valvs as i thought the new one was smaller. its actually 10mm bigger so 5 on each side. if you measured from the tales i would be fine. i cant move pipes easy as they come out the wall. if my old one is 790 and new is 800. will there be an issue. can i jiggle pipes a bit??? thanks
+James Baillie . Depends on your luck, you could always knock a small piece of wall out to give a bit more movement on both pipes and then plaster over the gaps after.
Many thanks for that . Have a 1970s rad' to replace ( rusting ) , it's 24 " high and 19" wide so I take it I'd replace with 600mm high , 400 wide plus buy a couple of "extender " pieces of pipe work ?
@@dereton33 thanks , will be shopping soon then ! following your "stuck radiator valves " video , I removed my WestTherm valve , stripped it down and freed the stuck "pin " . Obviously will get a brand new one along with my new radiator .
Measure the gap between the pipes then deduct the valve widths. Take a look at another rad in your house and measure how much the rad valve distance is then you will know how much.
This was such a good video ... Thanks, wish I had watched it before scrapping my old rads before measuring for the new ones DOH now im stuck aaaarrrrgggghhhh
