Central heating radiator replacement - convection - swapping old for new

[DJMK4]

Hi all

looking to see if i can do a radiator swap old for new,

i only have a small 2 bed place, downstairs i have a living room rad and a kitchen rad, and upstairs would be 2 bedrooms and bathroom

ideally looking to start with kitchen one, i am thinking of swapping one to see if i could do it on my own, size up, buy, plan, isolate, swap etc,

this is without draining the system. the ones downstairs are currently old double paned, the ones upstairs are old single paned. i was going to buy flowmaster replacements from screwfix, get the size the same ideally, i think they come with free thermalstatic valves but id have to check with screwfix what they are throwing in as free valves or if its worth paying a couple of quid more for some better than the free ones,

ill need some plumbers tape etc,


If im thinking i should be able to do the swap by isolating the rad im working on, then draining the rad, removing, fitting new one etc un-isolating,



I did read that you may want to do a metal fragment clean ? something about doing something with a magnet in the system to get rid of any metal fragments? is this needed?

 

[D-Ranged]

Hi all

looking to see if i can do a radiator swap old for new,

i only have a small 2 bed place, downstairs i have a living room rad and a kitchen rad, and upstairs would be 2 bedrooms and bathroom

ideally looking to start with kitchen one, i am thinking of swapping one to see if i could do it on my own, size up, buy, plan, isolate, swap etc,

this is without draining the system. the ones downstairs are currently old double paned, the ones upstairs are old single paned. i was going to buy flowmaster replacements from screwfix, get the size the same ideally, i think they come with free thermalstatic valves but id have to check with screwfix what they are throwing in as free valves or if its worth paying a couple of quid more for some better than the free ones,

ill need some plumbers tape etc,


If im thinking i should be able to do the swap by isolating the rad im working on, then draining the rad, removing, fitting new one etc un-isolating,



I did read that you may want to do a metal fragment clean ? something about doing something with a magnet in the system to get rid of any metal fragments? is this needed?

I'm not a plumber or boiler engineer, but have taken off/replaced plenty of radiators at my house.

If you haven't had a full flush of your system at any point, and don't know when it was last done, it is certainly worth doing if you feel up to it. You'll need to flush the whole system out though. If you're replacing radiators, it's definitely the best time to do it.

Having all the metal bits sitting in your system is obviously not efficient, as you're heating that up too, as well as causing blockages and stopping your radiators from heating properly or at all.

Also could install a magnaclean or similar system which collects the metal too.

I'm sure some guys that know what they're talking about will come along shortly.

 

[DJMK4]

I'll have a poke around on YouTube

I was going to see if I could try one rad to see if I could do it.. we have screw fix in the city few stores..which stock flomaster rads.

Just also noticed outside my estate where we have a bnq they also stock flomaster rads