Rubber olives and things All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[mortod]

I'm doing a DIY install of a JIS ******* towel rail. The supplied chrome valves have a rubber olive (plus a brass washer and a brass split washer), rather than the normal brass compression joint I am used to. In which order and which way round should those three items be assembled ?

Secondly, the valve tail that screws into the towel rail seems quite a sloppy fit. The last rad I fitted had a tapered thread but this is straight. Is using PTFE tape going to be enought to seal that joint, or should I just use LSX instead (or as well as, though I think I read somewhere you should not mix the two).

Keen to get both of the above right as I don't want to have to drain down to fix if I later find a leak (the valve tail screws up with a hex key, so no way to tighten later without removing the vavle).

[richieplum]

The assembly order is, nut onto pipe, then split washer, then solid brass washer, then rubber and finally valve body. Of course, if you feel happier with the old nut and olive a set of straight through chrome valves can be bought for as little as £7. The other point is regarding the thread into the radiator. Wind plenty of PTFE onto the thread, enough to smooth out the thread ( about 1/16 of an inch thickness, possibly more ). Don't worry that this seems a lot. As I was told many years ago..........."Any it don't want it'll push out !!"
Good luck.

[mortod]

Thanks - the manufacturer sent me a diagram which should have been included with the valve. I tried 20 turns of PTFE and then 2 turns of gas tape - both leaked. In the end I used LSX on its own which did the trick. Those little problems can be very frustrating!