Radiator cap. work principles. installation scheme types of

Traffic jams are independent elements of the construction, which are said to be “small spool, yes roads”. These simple limiters allow you to perform a number of functions from sealing the battery, to the possibility of joining several radiators and installing control valves. The purpose of this material is to understand how the radiator cap works and how to install it.

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Battery plugs

Different batteries have their own limiters, their rules for their installation.

Now all the new products on the market are equipped with ready-made installation kits, which include two types of plugs:

• Deaf - products that completely block the entrance or exit from the radiator.
• Passage - they have holes of smaller diameter for additional connection of regulating cranes, Mayevsky cranes, connection of connecting pipes.

For reference! In the ready-made kits, there is one blind plug, two checkpoints or two Americans, one checkpoint with a Mayevsky crane or its equivalent. Brackets (two or three) are put into some sets, for fixing the battery to the wall.

Owners of old cast-iron radiators are not forgotten either, for their heating systems, through-plugs have openings of two diameters:

• Half an inch - for a pipe of 20 cm in diameter;
• Three-quarters of an inch - for a pipe 25 cm in diameter.

Working principles for understanding

The principle of operation of the radiator cap is simple, set and forgotten, it is much more important to know another principle - the principle of placement of plugs in threaded connections.

Note! Plugs for heating radiators, screwed in incorrectly, can not only reduce heat transfer from the radiator, but also completely stop the circulation of heat in the battery.

• Therefore, when placing plugs in the product, if you completely change the battery, you must adhere to the principle of similarity. The installation of the plugs is the same as in the previous case;
• If you change the scheme of supplying pipes, leaving the old radiators, then it is better not only to rearrange the plugs, but also to replace them.

Approximate wiring diagram: basic classic

For the basic classical model, we consider a two-pipe connection, in which the supply pipe with heat carrier and the discharge pipe with cooled liquid fit on one side, with the hot source located on the top and the return flow from the bottom.

Installation is as follows:

• The upper entrance is closed with a plug through the tap and the connection to the hot water pipe;
• The opposite upper entrance is closed by a similar stub under Mayevsky's faucet, or rather, with the Mayevsky's faucet;
• The lower entrance (under the coolant inlet) is a plug through the return valve;
• The lower opposite entrance is a blind end.

Types of sealing joints

Despite the threaded connection, water will always find a place for infiltration and exit.

In order to seal the joints and prevent the flow of coolant from the system, the following assistants are used:

• Linen strands;
• UNIPAC Specialty Paste;
• FUM - tape.

Two sealing technologies:

• First - a thin, narrow band without lumps and twists is formed from flax fibers. This band wraps the joint in the opposite direction to the thread.

The fibers are laid tightly, without scrolling, and at the same time evenly without the formation of ridges. To prevent twisting of the fiber, shifting to one place, the thread with fibers is processed with UNIPAC paste;

• The second - FUM tape is screwed onto the threaded connection. Technology laying something like bandaging. The tape wraps around the entire perimeter of the pipe in the first turn, and then, with an overlap of three-quarters of the width of the previous tour, the tape is completed.

Expert advice! It is believed that the first type of sealing is more reliable, it is installed in threaded connections for a long time. FUM tape is less durable and is applicable to compounds that are audited every few years. Traffic jams for cast iron radiators without shutoff valves were installed by the first method.

Setting how and what

The method of sealing is clear, it remains to figure out the question of how to tighten the plugs in the radiators. And there is something to talk about.

There are several approaches to solving this problem:

• The easiest thing to do with cast iron batteries. The plug for the cast-iron radiator is securely screwed into place with an adjustable wrench. The only condition for selecting a tool is the diameter that it is able to serve.
• With modern batteries it is somewhat more complicated. Virtually all radiators use taps under the name of an American with a cap nut; they are installed not with a wrench, but with an L-shaped hex key. By the way, the same key is needed if you install a faucet in old cast-iron batteries. The radiator pig-iron checkpoint will accept this crane as a native, but you cannot do without a hexagon.

Tip! Hexagon under the American in sets of such keys is rare, it is much more often sold independently, its price is quite acceptable. Sometimes you can meet the recommendations of replacing the key with a homemade square pin. This is possible, but not desirable.

• Now, even if the cork for a cast-iron radiator is changing, you need two keys: an allen key for an American and an adjustable wrench for an ordinary cap nut. Of course, if this is a radiator stopper or a cast iron radiator stopper is blind, it is installed only with an adjustable wrench.

Brute force and shortage

No instruction will describe to you that golden stop the moment when it is necessary to stop and stop efforts to tighten the threaded connection. It is clear that you will do all the actions with your own hands and be guided by your own experience and feelings.

But we have prepared some tips:

• Trial fastening is carried out without winding, manually to visualize the nature of the connection, as well as to determine the type of thread - right or left;
• During the final fastening, the wrench goes smoothly, without jerks, especially at the closing stage;
• If an obstacle has arisen before complete connection of parts, the connection must be disassembled and inspected; the most likely cause of the obstacle is a huddled tape or fiber of the compactor;
• With the full passage of the nut thread control is carried out by smoothly tightening the key without extra effort.

Tip! Sharp efforts, jerks often lead not to a control tightening, but to the breakdown of a threaded connection. If you can tighten the under-tightened nut, you can’t fix the broken thread by replacing it. Therefore, treat the process carefully.

Finally

It is easy to install the plug, the replacement or the regulations are carried out without significant efforts, if everything was done right from the start. The video in this article has prepared material on the binding of radiators and the use of these small, but indispensable helpers.