How to drain your heating system | Includes plumbing hacks

Very informative. I drained my 18 month-old Baxi 400 via the Sentinel Vortex 300 today. The 5 downstairs rads were still full of water! There is a drain valve on one of the pipes coming out of the boiler, but it's stuck. Anyway, I've carried out the Fernox F3 and F1 treatment so I'll leave it 'til next year now. You should have seen the crud I got out of the Sentinel!!!

Brilliant video, thank you for sharing this. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Comprehensive explanation on how to drain , brilliant. However could you further explain how to then ensure all the radiators are drained, i.e, bleed valves, So now after you’ve drained, you want to get the boiler and central heating back on?

Excellent video Andrew,, thank you so much. Could I ask a question please. My pressurised boiler is downstairs, after I have bled the radiators from the one by the back door, and I've resealed the valve, how does the system fill with water again,.

Amazing work mate

Hi, great video and thank you. Is it safe to dump glycols/biocide/molybdate etc straight out onto the ground or drains? Wont this leach into the surrounding soils and eventually into the water course?

Hose pipe connector fits on most radiator valves which makes it a lot easier too

Sould you not turn the water off at the header tank first?

10mm (3/8") Clear Braided PVC Hose Pipe - 10m Length - Heavy Duty, Water, Airline, Compressor, Food Grade for £8.97 of amazon also good no need for clip.I am on 1st floor block flats,just added a stoptap/turn tap combi (comes eith stoptap plastic head or turn plastic head) with drain valve to radiator (Chrome Angled Radiator Valve with Drain-Off 15mm x ½" = screwfix) £5.09. can then just chuck hose out window as believe gravity drives it and it has to be lower than the pipes under the floorboards to totaly drain unless you can get a cheap fish tank pump and pump it out to the bath.just tips for those in flats.

Thank you

Great video andrew. Can I ask a couple questions , when draining via drain valve 1) Do you have the lock shield and the thermostatic rad valves open all the radiators in the house? 2) My 2015 newbuild house has drain point on all the downstairs radiators, does it matter which one I use? 3) Do you need to open all the bleed screws on the radiators?

how does the drain off from the trv drain the entire system? i tried this on the final ground floor radiator but still had water remaining upstairs

How does the drain off work when the hose is fitted to the bleed valve?

U did not mention about cutting off mains water supply

lockshield i meant not stoptap

Your the salt of the earth

All the gear and no idea. That’s a neoprene hose. Righty tighty and you turn it to the left. That will not drain the system your only running it off and the rest of the system is still full of water. So you don’t turn off the spur to kill the boiler. You don’t open up the motorised valves if fitted to drain the water and you don’t start at the top and start to open the rest of the rads to drain? Well good luck filling it back up. The reason to shut the spur off rather than just the boiler if the temperature drops the frost stat will kick in and switch the boiler on. Bye bye boiler. If your going to do it? Do it right and use a socket or a box key for plugs and vents.

Your accent is nails on a chalkboard