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As I was saying and I have one of those machines in the garage, if the heating is on they will not freeze a pipe and if its hot they take even longer to freeze and if you cant turn the heating off and the water is circulating round the system it won't freeze at all.
London aint it, folk can charge anything especially for something that isnt straight forward.
I wouldnt personally do that job for £200, that's got potentials to be a fuckin nightmare of a job if it doesnt go right.
konastab01-
Riiight, got it! That makes sense why installing a shut-off valve would be super tricky, thank you for explaining. I guess we'd have to wait for summer with that then.
Last question I need to know before getting quotes in: would it work on just the one radiator if the valve is shut so theres no circulation and its cooled down? The leak would be manageable for that long, and the pipe is about 3 metres away from the rest of the system.
And this one is just because now im curious: how would a plumber actually do it?
Edit: now that I think about it of course you cant use a backpack sized machine to freeze a pipe that carries enough energy to heat a house :D
kiskubai
As for doing it myself, I was gonna do that with proper kit rated for up to 42mm pipe not a single use sleeve. And I wouldnt attempt installing a shutoff valve mid-line, just changing the one on the radiator with the line frozen. I'd also have tools ready to crimp the pipe in a worst case scenario.
I have soldered copper pipes before, I have flushed radiator systems, changed thermostatic valves...etc, but its the element of no quick way of (reversably) shutting off a stream of scalding water in my direction if I fuck up, thats whats stopping me from just doing the whole thing myself.
Few hundred quid is entirely fair and we are ready to pay it. But like, £200 or £800? I'd also have to take out the kitchen cabinet from under the sink which is a pain, so there's that.
For context, we're paying about £200-£300 a month under market rate, and our landlord cancelled the maintenance contract with their management company ~1.5 years ago because we've been on a yearly rolling contract for 7 years and never once went to them about fixing anything, we just got it done (and told them about it).