Going to do some painting. The central heating in the house is all plastic pipes – not encountered this before. The radiators feel like they should just lift and lay away from the wall. So…

Can you just lift the heater and pivot it around its base? I’m working on the pipes flexing enough to allow this. I’d still be proping the heater up off the ground by a few inches.

Disconnect it, properly.

Or invest in lots of buckets.

They don’t bend much before ‘yielding’. And if the joints aren’t connected perfectly you can get pretty wet pretty soon.

Do it. What’s the worst that could happen? If the worst dose happen just say man on the internet said it will be ok.

It will be ok.

Life was so much easier with copper, thanks, will go for caution.

Life was so much easier with copper,

why? would you have “just lift the heater and pivot it around its base” if it was copper pipes?

No, because its fairly obvious they aren’t going to flex.

Edit – thats half a statement. its flippin obvious they arent going to flex where as its not, to me, with a plastic pipe.

The pipes have a bendability in them its where they conect to the joints that dont, so easy to disconect a joint and then whoosh, dirty brown water everywhere.

As a plumber I can assure you life wasn’t easier with copper……

(although still like getting my blowtorch out and doing some nice soldering, especially on bigger copper pipework)….

Im still novice enough to love soldering copper. Except when trying to do it with filthy “college” flux. 3x shots at one joint earlier this week because of crap in the flux grrrr.

Just surprised the rad drops aren’t in copper then onto plaggy under the floor.

Ok, it terms of looking at something and knowing how complex its going to be to do. Copper was much simpler – you look at it and know its going to be a job to sort. Plastic on the other hand looked like it might just be as simple as… and it turns out its not.

Stoner – bad workman and all that……..!

(I wash my brush out when the two guys who work for me have used it as it usually looks like a road sweepers broom!)

yeah yeah 🙂

though I did get introduced to some weird fittings – ones that you have to flare square cut (hacksaw not slice) copper pipe to take a large internal brass olive. Apparently course setters need students to meet these things, despite them costing £10 a fitting and no one uses them! 😉

I’d say if you can lift the rads up then you should be able to move them back an inch or two to paint behind without problem, have something to rest them on, they are not light.

tool for the job 😉

You’ve just photo=shopped that 😉

I think I sat on it actually

Stoner – did the call them Kingley fittings? Still got the old tools lurking somewhere in my garage. Never used them though!

A long brush looks more useful than a long stand

Tried and tested flux applicator

teacher didnt say, but having looked for “kingley” and found this
http://www.theplumbersmerchants.com/securex-fittings.asp
then yes, that looks like it. Teacher had a drift swager made up so I could anneal the tube and then flare it to match the olive.

Tried and tested flux applicator

my t-shirt has some very funky colours on it from wiping my “applicator” off on it 😯

Paul – if you put flux on with that then I’d sack you. Have you seen what it can do to your skin?

tastes foul too

hurts when it goes in you eye….

Bear – Member

Paul – if you put flux on with that then I’d sack you. Have you seen what it can do to your skin

It turned my overalls from blue to a red colour when I was 16. It stung like **** too. I learned quickly not to do it 🙂

what’s in flux anyway?

Lift it off and rest it on some blocks, stop faffing and get it done.