Bleeding a heated towel rail
The problem often arises for the owners of those apartments that are connected to the central heating system. The cause of the breakdown is an airlock that formed during operation and affects the normal operation of the equipment. There are several ways to release air from a heated towel rail, each of which involves a specific work algorithm.
Typical problems
During the operation of a heating device, it happens that it starts to warm up weakly, and after a while it becomes cold. The accumulated air inside it prevents the normal circulation of the liquid in the coolant, which leads to the problem. The solution is to release an airlock.
Some users know how to remove the formed airlock from the heated towel rail, but for fear of making it worse, they do not risk doing the work on their own. In this case, you should contact the master for help.
In apartments that are connected to central heating, air can enter the device when the system is started. Another problem is that when hot water slowly evaporates, an air lock forms, which makes it difficult to supply the liquid inside the coolant.
If the device remains cold for a long time, then a fungus will gradually begin to appear in the bathroom. For this reason, eliminating the airlock is so necessary.
How to bleed air on your own?
As soon as the air is deflated, the heated towel rail will work again. There are several ways to get rid of excess air in the system.
In old houses, in apartments on the upper floors or even in the attic, there is special valve for bleeding air from the heating system or hot water supply.
In the first case, you will have to contact directly the residents of the apartments upstairs, and in the second - to the person in charge who has access to the attic. Most often, he is a locksmith of the management company or a housekeeper.
Having reached the tap, you should open it and wait for the moment when water will pour out of it. In order not to flood the lower floors, it is worthwhile to prepare in advance by substituting any spacious container under the tap.
After that, the heated towel rail should work. If this does not happen, then the previously performed manipulations should be repeated until a positive result is achieved.
Sometimes access to the tap is difficult for one reason or another, so you can resort to the second, more risky way to release air - loosening the nut, with which the heated towel rail is attached to the pipes.
When using it, you will need not only accuracy, but also some tool, namely:
- pliers;
- adjustable wrench;
- large basin (volume from 20 liters).
Using the pliers, you need to pull out a piece of metal wire, which usually fixes the position of the nut, and gradually loosen it with an adjustable wrench until you hear the hiss of the bleed air.
To avoid flooding, a basin must be placed under the heated towel rail. Once again, it should be noted that this method is highly discouraged for use in old houses, since there is a high risk of ripping off the thread on the nut and flooding everything around. You can resort to it only in the most extreme cases.
The third and easiest way to release air is to use special air vents, which are installed at the stage of installing a heating system in a private house or when replacing a heated towel rail in a city apartment.
Installation of the Mayevsky crane
Do not be afraid that the Mayevsky crane is a complex design, which is difficult to install and expensive. Not at all, the valve is just two parts: a tapered screw and a body.
Mayevsky crane with a key
The purpose of the tap is to remove air to the outside, a guarantee of high-quality operation of the heated towel rail.
The principle of operation of the device: when the tap is open, air from the system enters the body, where it is removed through the side opening; when the screw is closed, neither air nor liquid can escape from the pipeline.
When choosing a Mayevsky faucet, pay attention to the diameter of the outer thread, it should correspond to the size of your pipes that are used in the heating system.
Depending on the design, the Mayevsky crane can be opened and closed either by hand or with a special key or screwdriver.
When installing the faucet, make sure that the hole is at the bottom of the faucet. In this case, collecting water, it will immediately fall into the container, and not on the walls of the bathroom. And the faucet itself needs to be mounted at the top of the heated towel rail to make it easier to release the air.
Factors that lead to poor performance of a heated towel rail
The most common reason for cooling is the formation of air locks. Therefore, first of all, you need to try to deflate the towel.
The easiest way to do this is in a private house, where the owner knows how the water supply system works and where the tap is located, which must be opened to release the air. In apartment buildings, there is a possibility that it will have to be vented from all over the riser. The procedure depends on the type of building, since the engineering of the riser is different everywhere:
- In old Soviet five-story buildings, the hot water riser goes back to the fifth floor and makes the opposite movement down. The accumulation of air occurs at the highest point, therefore it is released from the apartment on the highest floor. There, a hose is put on the upper valve of the riser, the valve turns, and the water is drained until the air disappears.
- In panel nine-storey buildings, all communication networks end in the attic, respectively, the issue needs to be resolved there. There is not always access to this room at home, it is quite possible that you will have to call a full-time plumber from the service organization. If there is an opportunity to get there, then the procedure is carried out with his own hand. To do this, just as in the first case, a hose is put on the outlet from the pipe and the water is drained until the air lock is removed.
- In buildings of a different type, no one will allow you to engage in arbitrariness. The plumbing service, which will need to be called, will restart the riser - the procedure removes the trapped air.
We offer you to familiarize yourself with Siphon under the bathtub
In a hopeless situation, the cork is removed directly on the heated towel rail itself. All this is unsafe, fraught with flooding. There are two options (depending on the type of product itself)
If the plumbing fixtures are of the old model, proceed as follows:
- We substitute a container for draining water under the device in order to avoid filling the bathroom with water;
- Using a pre-prepared adjustable wrench, unscrew the nut connecting the dryer to the hot water pipe. It is necessary to act very carefully, since there is a risk of breaking the thread, especially if the equipment is very dilapidated;
- We wait until the hissing ends, and water without air impurities will pour into the container;
- We also tighten the nut carefully to avoid an emergency.
- With modern models, the process can be replicated less risky.
These dryers are equipped with a special air vent - a Mayevsky crane. In fact, this is a shutter, presented in the form of a narrow conical cylinder. It consists of a body with a locking screw, small inlet and outlet holes.
According to the operating principle, the air vent is unlocked by turning the plug screw. Due to the small diameter of the holes, pouring a huge amount of water when opening it will not work.
To bleed air, we carry out simple work in several stages:
- We substitute a container under the Mayevsky air vent where the water will drain;
- Armed with a screwdriver or a suitable wrench, we turn the screw gently. Do not do this too much, so that during the reverse procedure, the pressure of the water does not allow you to complete it;
- We are waiting for the hissing to end, and water without air will not come out of the holes.
- We close the tap back.
After removing the air in this way, the towel should begin to perform its functions.
If, after all the above procedures, the heated towel rail still does not start heating, it can be assumed that there is no coolant circulation in it. Sometimes it really happens.
In this case, you can try to drain the hot water in an elementary way: open all the taps with it in the apartment. That is, in the kitchen, bathroom, etc.
The method is not cheap, given the tariffs for hot water supply, but it can still be cheaper than calling a plumber for repairs.
If the available actions did not have an effect, the heated towel rail still does not heat, you will need to clean the product. Obviously, the reason is a blockage or accumulated salt deposits. For the procedure, the towel will need to be dismantled. Flushing activities take place in several stages:
- We shut off the hot water supply so as not to make the neighbors flood;
- For safety reasons, we install plugs on the pipes;
- We unscrew the nuts fixing the device using a pipe wrench;
- We remove the heated towel rail;
- We clean the equipment with a soft wire rope with a brush at the end;
- We tap the device to knock hardened salt deposits from its inner surface;
- We wash the product with a high pressure of water. To do this, we put a hose on the tap and lower its other end inside the dryer;
- We mount the device back.
The work of flushing plumbing fixtures requires a certain level of training. In the absence of skill, the best solution would be to contact a specialist.
Although a heated towel rail is a fairly simple device, it can be difficult to find the reason for ineffective operation. To reduce time and not do unnecessary work, the search for the "weak link" is carried out according to a certain algorithm:
- de-airing the heating device;
- determine the pressure of hot water at the inlet to the heated towel rail. This can be done both with a special device - a pressure gauge, and using one of the calculation methods;
- analyze and eliminate the causes that lead to a drop in pressure in the circuit;
- the heated towel rail is dismantled and cleaned from dirt and deposits.
If the heated towel rail does not heat up at normal pressure in the DHW system and good permeability of the circuit, then it is installed incorrectly. In this case, it is necessary to change the connection diagram, and possibly move the device to another place. We will move on to discussing editing errors and how to fix them a little later. Now let's remember the simplest methods of solving the problem.
You can check whether the air lock is the cause of the trouble, and you can remove it from the heated towel rail using a special air vent, which is also called a radiator air valve or Mayevsky tap. To do this, the plug screw (needle) of the valve is turned out of the seat so that air begins to hiss out of the radiator.
The process of removing an airlock using a Mayevsky crane does not cause difficulties - any home craftsman can handle this procedure
The end of the process can be determined by a thin stream of water without bubbles and hiss, which will begin to flow out of the valve opening. After that, the Mayevsky tap is closed and it is checked whether the coil has begun to heat up.
Often, our readers are faced with a situation where the heated towel rail was originally mounted without an air vent. In this case, we recommend installing this useful and inexpensive device - in the future it can save you a lot of time and effort.
The simplest design makes the Mayevsky crane reliable and easy to use.
As a temporary measure, it is possible to recommend bleeding air by depressurizing the circuit. To do this, you need to stock up on some kind of container (bowl or bucket), and lay a rag on the floor under the PS. Next, you should slightly unscrew the upper nut, with which the "towel" is connected to the riser.
Modern method
This the method involves the installation of a Mayevsky crane on the heated towel rail. Modern models are sold complete with it. Please note that the tap is not responsible for shutting off the water, but only serves as an air vent.
The Mayevsky crane includes a needle valve and an adjusting screw. In order to bleed the accumulated air, it is enough with a flat screwdriver or a special wrench to turn the screw to open the valve.
The air must be deflated until hot water flows out of the small hole in a thin stream.
After that, the screw is tightened to the initial position and in just a few minutes the heated towel rail starts to warm up and then becomes hot. What to do without a Mayevsky tap if you need to blow out the air? In this case, you will need tools at hand:
- pliers;
- key;
- capacity (at least 10 liters);
- flat screwdriver.
Even without plumbing skills, you can slightly loosen the fixing nut and release the air. If there is a gurgling noise, do not be alarmed, this is how the system is filled with water, in which air has accumulated before. If you plan to carry out this operation in an old house, it is better to call an experienced plumber, since the nut may break.
This procedure will have to be carried out several times a year in order for the heated towel rail to function correctly.
The main difficulty of the drying device
After a specific period of use of the towel dryer, you will find that it has stopped warming and is considered completely cool at that moment.
Inhabitants of high-rise buildings can often face this problem when the centralized heating system is turned on in the autumn. At this time (when the pipes are filled with water), air may appear in the pipes. Similar plugs in most cases appear in the terminating parts of the heating system, which is considered a heated towel rail.
As soon as there is air in the pipes, the high-quality circulation of hot water is disrupted, so the dryer stops heating up.
A long conventional towel dryer can significantly affect your habits and good airing of the bath, because a lot of moisture can appear on the wall decoration of the room even in seven days.
If you are going to install a towel dryer or have already installed it, you must be aware of all its methods and possible problems of their solution.
