Urgh, we read this article recently and it highlighted some awful things that can breed in your damp towels if you leave them long enough! We were very surprised (and disgusted) about what can appear in your towels if they are left on the floor and not washed!
Silverfish, booklice, springtail, centipede and woodlice find damp places ideal breeding grounds and can really thrive, so pick up that towel off the floor and hang it on you heated towel rails or towel radiators!

Try to obtain a radiator that is exactly the same model as the one you plan to replace. This will make the job relatively straightforward.

SIMPLE REPLACEMENT
Drain the old radiator and remove it from the wall, then unscrew both of the valve adaptors from the bottom with anadjustable spanner, or if necessary, a hexagonal radiator spanner. Unscrew the bleed valve, using the bleed key and then the two blanking plugs from the top of the radiator, using a square or hexagonal radiator spanner.

Use wire wool to clean any corrosion from the threads of both adaptors and blanking plugs, then wind four or five turns of PFTE tape round the threads. Screw the plugs and adaptors into the new radiator and then screw the bleed valve into it's blanking plug.

Hang the new radiator on the wall brackets and connect the valves to their adaptors. Open the valves, then fill and bleed the radiator.

REPLACEMENT WITH A DIFFERENT PATTERN RADIATOR
Rather more work is involved in the replacement if you can't get a radiator of the same pattern as the old one. You will have to fit new wall brackets and alter the pipe runs. (A post of how to fit new heated towel rails will be coming soon.)

Drain your central heating system, then take the old brackets off the wall. Lay the new radiator face down on the floor and slide one of its brackets onto the hangers welded to the back of the radiator. Measure the position of the brackets and transfer these measurements to the wall. You need to allow a clearance of 100 or 125mm (4 or 5in) below the radiator.

Line up the pencil marks on the wall, and mark the fixing-screw holes for them. Drill and plug the holes, then screw the brackets in place.

Take up the floorboards below the radiator and cut off the vertical portions of the feed and return pipes. Connect the valves to the bottom of the radiator and hang it on it's brackets. Slip a short length of pipe into each of the valves as a guide for any further trimming of the pipes under the floor. Connect these lengths to the original pipes with capillary or compression fittings, then connect the new pipes to the valves.

Finally, refill the system with water, and check all the new connnections and joints for leaks.

We've got some great offers over at our heated towel rails website ChromeTowelRails.com, so we thought today we would do some shameless promoting of our great products. If you are redoing your bathroom and want a stylish towel radiator to help finish it off, then take a look at our offerings below:

Our fantastic Square Bar heated towel rails look incredibly swanky and are proving to be very popular since we added them to our range a couple of months ago. Starting at the ridiculously low price of £135, these towel radiators range from 800mm x450mm to a huge 1600mm x 600mm. These towel rails look awesome and will heat your towels and bathroom superbly.

Starting at a bargain £165, our designer range called the Paisley Heated Towel Rails have just had their prices slashed and look great in any modern bathroom. These are also fairly new additions to our towel radiators range and we have received some outstanding feedback from our customers about them.Sizes range from 1500mm x 305mm to the biggest whoich is 2000mm by 570mm and a has a huge BTU output of 4,368. Look at our site for the Paisley Towel Radiators range.

You can remove an individual radiator without draining the whole system. Make sure you have plenty of rag for mopping up spilled water, plus a jug and a large bowl. The water in the radiator will be very dirty, so, if possible, roll back the floor covering before you start.

Shut off both valves, turning the shank of the lockshield valve clockwise with a key or an adjustable spanner. Note the number of turns needed to close it, so that later you can reopen it by the same amount.

Unscrew the cap-nut holding either the handwheel valve or the lockshield valve to the adaptor in the end of the radiator. Hold the jug under the joint and open the bleed valve slowly to let the water drain out. Transfer the water from jug to bowl and continue doing this until no more water can be drained.

Unscrew the cap-nut that holds the other valve onto the radiator, lift the radiator free from its wall brackets and drain any remaining water into the bowl. Unscrew the brackets if you plan to decorate the wall.

To replace the radiator, screw the brackets back in place, then hang the radiator on them and tighten the cap-nuts on both valves. Close the bleed valve and reopen both radiator valves (open the lockshield valve by the same number of turns you used when closing it). Last of all, use the bleed valve to release any air trapped in the radiator.

Draining the Radiators
1. Turn off the central heating. Once the water has cooled down, switch off the pump and shut down the two stopcocks to the two tanks in the loft (the cold-water supply tank and the feed-and-expansion tank).
2. Go to the boiler and locate the draincock at the lowest point in the system. Push one end of a garden hose out into the garden or into a drain.
3. Open the draincock with a spanner. When water stops running out of the hose, go up to the top of the house and then, working your way down from the highest radiator in the system, open the bleed valves.

Cleaning & refilling the system
1. Once the system is empty, introduce a proprietary descaler into the system as recommended by the manufacturer. This will usually involve turning off the draincocks and bleed valves, pouring the descaler into the feed-and-expansion tank in the loft, running the boiler and then flushing the system.
2. Close the draincocks and radiator valves and open up the stopcock to the feed-and-expansion tank in the loft. When the system is full of clean water, go to the lowest radiator in the system and bleed the valve to let out the trapped air. Gradually work up towards the topmost radiator in the system.

Cleaning (or replacing) a radiator
1. Roll back the carpet by the radiator and cover the surrounding floor with old towels. Run a path of plastic sheet from the radiator to the door of the garden, so that you can carry the towel radiators outside without dribbling water across the floor covering.
2. You can use your hands to turn off the control valve at one end of the radiator, but you will need an adjustable spanner to turn off the lockshield valve at the other end.
3. With a couple of bowls, a bucket and old cloths at the ready, and with a helper close at hand, go to the control-valve end of the radiator and use the two spanners to to disconnect the radiator from the valve, all the while being ready to guide the water into a bowl.
4. When the water has stopped flowing out of the control-valve end of the radiator, unscrew the connection at the lockshield-valve end and lift the radiator from it's bracket. Carefully take the radiator from the room and carry it out into the garden.
5. Wash out the old radiator with the garden hose, wind wraps of PTFE tape around the threaded tails, refit the connections, open the valves and bleed the air vents and the job is done. Alternatively, replace the radiator with a new one of the same size.

Cleaning the pump on the boiler
1.  Turn off the power at the main fuse box or consumer unit.
2. Go to the boiler, use a screwdriver to remove the cover plate from the pump, unscrew the connections and disconnect the wiring. 
3. With a bowl, bucket and old cloths to hand, turn off the service valves taps at either side of the pump, undo the connections with adjustable spanners and lift the pump clear.
4. Take the pump into the garden and use the hose to flush out all the sludge. When you have cleaned it thoroughly (or purchased a new one of the same size and specifications), fit new fibre washers and use a spanner to fix the pump back into place.
5. Turn the valves back on, reconnect the electricity and run the boiler. Finally, use a screwdriver to bleed the large screw valve at the centre of the pump, and the job is done.

Balancing the radiators
The object of this exercise is to ensure that the flow of water through the radiators is balanced - by adjusting the individual valves - so that all the radiators reach the required heat. (or, put another way, if you simply open all the valves to their full extent, the flow of hot water from the boiler will find the swiftest route round the system, with the effect that some radiators will run very hot while others stay cold). You will need a pair of radiator thermometers, which can be hired from a tool-hire shop.
1. Turn off the heating system. When it has been off for a few hours and the water is cold, go to the radiators and turn all the valves full on - the hand-operated valve at one end of the radiator and the spanner/pliers-operated lockshield valve at the other end.
2. If you now turn the boiler on and feel the radiators in turn, you should be able to work out the order in which the radiators heat up, and the direction of flows in and out of the radiators.
3. Use tabs of masking tape to label the radiators with the order in which they heat up.
4. The next operation will take some time. Take the pair of thermometers and clip them to the flow and return pipes just below the valves. Now, starting with radiator number one, close the lockshield valve, and then open it little by little, until the temperature on the 'flow' (the hot-water-in end of the radiator) has reached a point about 10-11°C hotter than the temperature on the 'return' (the cold-water-out end of the radiator).
5. Continue making adjustments to all the radiators in turn until you get to the end of the circuit. If you have got it right, the valves on radiator number three will be slightly more open than those on radiator number two, and so on up the list, to the point where the valve on the last radiator in line will be almost full on.


Article reprinted from The Complete Book of Home Plumbing by Julian Bridgewater