DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hello All

I have just gutted my bathroom, and will need everything repiping etc. I plan to wall mount the heated towel rail on the wall at the end of the bath higher up the wall.

As I'm going to have to chisel out the wall, I thought that the standard pushfit elbows were going to be too bulky (and need too much cutting out of the wall in order to sufficiently bury them to allow for the copper pipe to stick out of the wall). So I saw something called a Stem Elbow, seems to have a connection on one end to connect to the pipe providing flow/return of water but how does the stem then attach to the towel warmer? I plan to the cover the stem with some chrome pipe covers.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'd recommend using a smaller gauge pipe, maybe 10mm coated pipe. It can be bent to fit the chase and then bent to attach to the towel rail, no need for joints in the wall.

No joints = No leaks

The only joints will be under the floor, reducing 15mm to 10mm in no problem and will be sufficient for a towel rail.

Htg

Thanks for the reply, but going to 10mm would mean the pipe would not fit to the towel warmer valves which are 15mm?

If I knew the stem elbows where ok for this I would use them - no problem chisseling the wall, just that standard speedfit elbows have bulk at each end so would have to chisel out more depth in order to just get the pipe coming out of the wall as apposed to some of the joint aswell.


Thanks again

A normal elbow has a female coupling at either end of the fitting. A stem or street elbow has a female at one end and a male fitting at the other. The male end fits into the radiator valve and clamps using an olive in the traditional way.

Quote [Thanks for the reply, but going to 10mm would mean the pipe would not fit to the towel warmer valves which are 15mm? ]

use 10mm olives instead of 15mm

10mm olives won't fit directly into the 15mm fitting, but you can get 15 - 10mm reducers for a couple of quid that fit inside the valve body.

"standard speedfit elbows"

Never use speedfit or any other pushfit or compression fitting where the pipework is buried in the wall.

As Htg Engineer says no joints at all is best but if there have to be joints they should be soldered.

Cheers

i agree with rosebery and htg engineer, its madness to bury push fit connections in the wall. not just the amount of wall to be removed to accommodate the bulk - if it leaks it is a messy job to replace and it could be a while before any leaks become evident.

no joints or copper soldered fittings are the recommendation. denzo the pipe before backfilling.