Radiator valve exploded

[breathe3asy]

I got woken by a loud bang in the night and the radiator valve appears to have exploded off leaving scattered parts nearby.

The heating was off at the time and had been for a few hours as it happened early this morn.

Does anyone have an idea what this means?

Spoiler

 

[AS_Platinum]

At a guess, the spring is quite a strong one, the plastic got brittle and just gave up. Buy a new TRV.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Does anyone have an idea what this means?

I thing it means you need a new TRV

 

[Maccapacca]

There's no need for a new one if you didn't use it. If you had it set on 6 of 6 for example.

 

[dholdi]

Hopefully you should be able to still buy them so you can just change the head.

 

[Kol]

Hopefully you should be able to still buy them so you can just change the head.

Looks like a standard M30 TRV.

OP, just replace it with one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drayton-Th...f=sr_1_15?keywords=trv&qid=1577960707&sr=8-15

It's a dry job, replacing a TRV.

 

[Diddums]

Drop me a trust, I've got a few here at work from before our fit out so are no longer used. For the price of postage I'll send you one


EDIT: The exact one that @Kol linked. You can usually replace them by hand but if not, a pair of water pump pliers will see you right.

 

[Building Candy]

any breakage involving water that doesn't result in wet carpets is a win in my book.

 

[breathe3asy]

You are all spot on thanks lads, after some more research its on the head that needs replacing and is a 2 min dry job. I'm so happy lol, I got a massive fright when it happened as I've only just moved in. I've found a replacement head and job done already but you're a top man @Diddums !

 

[Diddums]

No worries, always a pleasure to help out a fellow OCUKer

Congrats on the house, purchase or rent?

 

[breathe3asy]

Purchase, all the way back in April 2019 and only just completed in December - nightmare but worth the wait

 

[breathe3asy]

Turns out it didn't even matter replacing the TRV head as the rad still behaves as if its fully open, confirmed by swapping heads from a known good rad in the house, could have saved myself the hassle of £10 and a trip to the store!

 

[Orionaut]

Turns out it didn't even matter replacing the TRV head as the rad still behaves as if its fully open, confirmed by swapping heads from a known good rad in the house, could have saved myself the hassle of £10 and a trip to the store!

Maybe that is what contributed towards the original failure. The water valve has stuck open so the TRV generates greater internal forces attempting to close it. Combine with age and embrittlement of plastic, this pushed it over the edge and it shattered.

 

[Kol]

You could lightly tap the pin (so the bit which is protruding) with a hammer, it may just be old and stuck.

Or get someone in. It’s not a difficult job to replace the whole piece but requires draining down and if you’ve only just moved in you might not want the potential for it to leak or make a mess.