I plan to install a vinyl floor in my bathroom this weekend. I plan to pull out a small radiator so I can do a decent job underneath it instead of cutting around it, but I expect the job to take a couple of days, and I need heat in the house during that time. If I leave the whole hot water system empty while the radiator is removed, I won’t have any heat. I’d like to cap off the radiator pipes while I do the job so I can fill the system again and have heat in the rest of the house.
Will a regular pipe cap work on the male side of the couplings that will be left after I remove the radiator? Or is there some special “coupling cap” that I need to get. I’d rather not make 20 trips to the hardware store looking for the right part, only to find I’m going at this all wrong. I’m not sure if the threads would mate and if the diameter would be the right size if I got a regular pipe end cap.
Thanks for any light you can shed on this.
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In the houses I've lived in with radiators, the pipes formed a loop, if I recall. Capping one would have interrupted the loop. Have you traced all the pipe runs to make sure there's a way for the water to flow through all other radiators?
I never bothered to check to see if the radiators are all on the same loop because each radiator has its own shutoff valve. I just assumed that the valve would shut only that radiator off, and not the rest of the house (or zone.) It's a good point though, I'll certainly take a poke around. At least this radiator is on the first floor, and the pipes are all visible from the basement.
Thanks for the idea.
Do you know anything about the type of pipe cap I might need for temporarily capping off the coupling after I remove the radiator?
Thanks again.
>because each radiator has its own shutoff valve.
Ahhh, see, only one of mine had a shutoff.
I did exactly the same thing and never replaced the radiator! I assume you have one of those massive steam/hot water types. I simply drained the system (cracked some bleeder valves to admit atmospheric pressure), then unhooked and pulled the radiator. Heavy. Regular galvanized pipe caps with teflon tape worked fine and have been working fine for over ten years. As I recall they were 1 1/4 in ID. It would be a good idea to have the caps on hand before you begin this, expecially if you do it on Sunday morning.
My system is hot water, so it has two pipes. One on each end of the radiator. It's encouraging that a common galvanized pipe cap worked for you. I hope it will work in my situation too. Just have to trace the pipes back to make sure it won't mess up the heating in the rest of the house.
Thanks for your input.
That's exactly the system in my house: two pipes per radiator, with a zone valve on the "in" end. I think you will find that the radiators are "in parallel" (not series), so pulling one shouldn't affect the rest of the circuit.