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I was today years old when I figured out how my thermostat (TRV) worked. Thanks for the great explanation!

We're an agency and this is such a helpful video to share with our tenants, (especially those in house shares). Keep the basic knowledge videos coming please!

Your Videos have been invaluable, and gave me the confidence to do some necessary housekeeping on my system. I have found a few tricks, that if you think are sensible to make videos on, would be appreciated: Tip/Vid 1: To find the last RAD, (Which you will drain from), open all Lock Sheer valves and TRV's fully, including downstairs, heat the system up for a 1 hour or so, and the last Rad should be cold. I found this out btw after I had done my work, but doing it before will help I think. I labeled it "Last Rad". Tip/Vid 2: When replacing a 3 port valve, always set the old valve you are replacing to "M" this will make sure you take the top water from the cylinder out of the system when you drain. Use some LS-X silicone around the original olive when replacing, I left it 12 hours to cure , so wrap up warm! and so far...after refilling (touch wood) no leaks. Tip/Vid 3: After you have refilled the system, and you have bleed from downstairs to up, worth advising if you are cleansing the system first before inhibiting, is to close the last RAD valve before refilling contrary to your advice , then follow the bleed process.... that way you don't loose the cleaner. It meant more bleeding, but I'm confident it's in the system for a few weeks before I do the whole process again to then add inhibitor. Lastly add to that, keep the ball cock open in the header tank, as if that drops significantly whilst your bleeding air, you will suck more air in, I heard it filling all the time, but was paranoid about the level going too low. Anyway thanks again for your vids.... they are amazing and will subscribe...I'm no plumber!! but there is NO WAY I would of done this task with out your great vids !!!..

I’ve always had a understanding how it works roughly but this really set it in stone and it’s great looking how it actually does it’s job for better understanding. Thank you James 🙂

That's great. Now do a tutorial on how the indicator lights on a car work and how to activate them. This will benefit many drivers.

Thank you James! Bathroom sales designer here and I feel called out (as the person who just can't get this knowledge into my head). The more I learn the more questions I ask. Thanks for explaining how it works! I often get customer who ask how the thermostat works and until now I could not answer any of them.

That’s really well explained and well presented, I think we’re all a little wiser, excellent 👍

As a plumber I have had many a discussion on why two radiators in the same room both set the same but one stays hot longer than the other. My explanations range from the valve being in a restricted air space, behind curtains, furniture or other objects like coats hung on the end covering the valve. I also explain that a radiator on a outside wall or under a window may detect cooler air from outside than a radiator on an inside wall. draughts from windows, doors and vents add to this problem. The position and setting the valve can also be a factor, horizontal or vertical will give different readings which is made slightly worse if the valve is feeding the top of the radiator instead of the bottom. A top inlet vertical valve picks up the heat coming off the supply pipe where horizontal valve is not is not in the direct air flow. The last thing is certain valves come setup to be fitted as a horizontal valve and if fitted vertically they don't work properly. On some of these, on the valve body there is an adjuster with arrows showing the direction of flow. (Danfoss valves were the first I noticed set to be used horizontal) A couple of symptoms of this can be knocking and/or premature closing and late opening on temperature rise and fall. I would love to see you set up some experiments to show these effects.

I've just moved from a freezing cold flat to a house that actually stays warm and was wondering why the radiators weren't heating up clearly the rooms are warm enough and don't need to be on. This is explained perfectly now I understand completely

At last, a thorough explanation of a TRV. Won't forget that now. Thanks.

Brilliant demo James, and close to my heart. So many switch between 5 when they are cold and back to 0 when they get too hot! This should be part of the National Curriculum!

even knowing how the valve works it's still awesome to see the valve work in action, watching the flow of water slow down till it stops as you are heating it up is very cool. love your videos, as i have just finished learning beside a plumber and now on my way to work solo, your videos are very useful.

Absolutely brilliant, mate! A video like this should be a link to on the front page of the manual for every bloody central heating system in the world.

This fella is bang on, explains things so easily, which I've just shown a Tennant an she understood straight away

Hi James - Just wanted to say a huge thank you for all the plumbing videos. We've had a bit of an autumnus horribilis this year with plumbing problems, and the fact that I am now sitting in a warm house with hot, balanced, airlock-free, inhibitor-filled radiators (and correctly set TRVs!) is largely down to you. Good job... Thanks.

I have said it before, and I will say it again, THIS GENTLEMAN IS BRILLIANT ! He has a great personality and surely there could be room for a television slot for him featuring practical plumbing for dopes like me ! Thanks again for a great informative video. 😁👍

1:40 in and the question has already been answered for me. In all my years I've never known how TRV's worked, Thanks!

Thank you so much for this. The numpty who fitted my radiators told me the numbers just effected the flow in to the radiator. I've set them all to 3 and will tweak it when it gets cold tonight.

I've been a fan of your videos for a few years now, always entertaining, informative and educational. Then in this one, out of nowhere you mention Knightmare, my favourite tv show ever from my childhood? Well you sir have just ascended to another level of awesomeness!

These are the videos I like the most: entertaining and everything explained in plain English. Well done for a splendid effort.

One of the best explanation I have ever seen. Well played James

Good vid. My granddaughter's thermo valve is behind her bed. Now I know why the rad didn't work to good.

Another great video. I love the quality of your camera and what all you are doing!!!

Been obsessing over my heating as i've recently gone from an old back boiler system, where I would just set times for it to come on and heating would be on full the entire time. It's really made me think about how I use(d) the heating. This video clearly explained what a ridiculous amount of articles i've read, failed to. I'll readily admit I had no idea, which over the years has cost me hundreds.

Genuinely thought our new boiler was overworking and trying to kill us... Turns out my GF wouldn't stop playing around with the TRVs... so helpful thank you dude!

Just had new valves fitted so finding this video is quite pertinent. Probably like most people I didn't realise that is how they work, so thank you for the explanation. I will be trying my new valves out with all this in mind!

Dude anothet great stuff. Thanks to your videos I moved radiator across the room, installed exposed shower and now understood why my rads are cold on 3 when the room temp is 23. Keep up like this. You are making life easier.

I always thought I was physically turning the TRV to open and close the pin in the rad. This morning I woke up and for some weird reason my brain told me that would just slow down the time it taken to fill with water. I had no idea there was a temp sensor and heat related switch in there! Brilliant video, mind blown.

Great video James, your informal style makes learning fun and demystifies the world of plumbing. Yes please more videos on plumbing basics

This is a brilliant and well explained ... even a simpleton like me can follow this. Speaking of, I followed his guide and my gas meter is now running down slower.

After having a new boiler and trv fitted I couldn't think why one of my radiators was off all the time (in the room where the gas fire is always on). Now I know, and I can manage it properly. Thanks 👍🏻

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Great stuff. I've made it to nearly fifty without really understanding how a radiator works. My eyes have been opened, thanks PP :)

Thank you for this. I had no idea. The plumber never mentioned it.

Spent 20 years wondering and never looking into it, and now I now what the dam thing does, thank :)

Absolutely loved this and will show the wife !! - especially the bit when you said "it knows the room's cold !" - leave it alone to do its job - does my 'ead in too !!

I am a female living with my child. Noone ever taught me about basic plumbing or how to re wire a plug or how to fix up my car. . i love this stuff i have learned so much. I also love things like making up flat pack furniture and laying paving. I should have gone into the building trade ! These skills should be taught to all kids as well as how to run a home manage a bank account and safe cooking and nutrition These are real important life long skills for everyone.

Very good demo for those that don`t have the foggiest of how TRV`s function.

Love this video! can you now do one explaining how this correlates to the thermostats and main heating controls. Like if i have the digital thingy set to 28 degrees but the TRV's set to '3'. Then which component takes priority?

Great explanation on how TRVs work, now all I need is TRVs on my radiators.

Great info, thanks for the full explanation I learned something here... Also its great to see Bradley Cooper taking time out from filming for this. :)

That was excellent, thank you. I've never really understood plumbing paraphernalia, that's why I run an Electrical contracting company.

Nice work. It always surprises me, how few people understand how a thermostat works.

Really appreciate this video - just moved to a new house and couldn't work out why the upstairs was so much warmer than the downstairs - just thought it was a case of the boiler being upstairs and the upstairs radiators being serviced first and the downstairs radiators being serviced last with cooler water lol

Very very knowledgeable and eye-opening video.

Great video. Even though we don't have radiators in Australia, I still love watching these "rad" radiator vids

i think you made it so easy for every body great explanation loved the video.

wow, I had no idea and my Gas Safe Engineer had no idea. He tried "balancing" the system by turning down the TRV, not the other valve. Thanks man!!!

Hi James.Just brilliant as usual.

Thank you, very informative. Need more videos like this. All Gas controls, safety shut offs, etc. Keep up the good work.

Brilliant...the amount of times I have to explain to a customer how a trv works!!!

I stumbled across this and I’m glad I did. I now have all my valves set at 3.5 and the system runs great 👍

Nice one mate the amount of times ive spoken to customer's about this my head could blow off with my own heat.

I have watched a lof of your videos over the years since buying my house. Always fantastic and clear explanations which are really helpful. Cheers mate. Legend

Hi , thanks for your explanation , just waiting for you to put a blow lamp on it , to warm it up . Your like a bottle off POP , CUSTOMERS kids must love it when you walk in . Until their parents get the bill . L O L . Keep going mate , the world needs plumbers like you .

James, thanks for giving me some extra ammunition for an ongoing radiator war I'm having with my wife :D. But seriously, a very clear and simple explanation. Though I think some cut-out diagrams and/or animations of the internals of the valve would make it even more educating.

A master class. I have had the same gauge installed on my steam radiator without understanding how it works. Thank you. Seattle.

This is quite useful as 99 percent of people dont know about this and how to use a TRV valve.

showed this to the wife and kids, next day all the trv's turned to 5...FML

If your heating system is adjusted by a control rad(Always on/Usually in hallway) in conjunction with a room thermostat (In hallway) Then some other rooms may be colder or hotter depending on room size, radiator size and thermal properties...etc And will only shut down the heating system when the hallway reaches the temp set at the thermostat. If you set your hallway thermostat to 21 degrees C because that temp suits you and say another small box room heats up a lot earlier than your draughty hallway, then you have the option to dial down the TRV in the box room, which stops feeding the radiator hot water at a set room temp rather than it carrying on heating because the hallway hasn't reached its 21c cut off. The valve above states 20C at position 3, so a tad more than 3 may be your personal setting for that room. This is where TRVs are most useful, especially at night when the family go to bed and each individual can set temps to their comfort levels. On the other hand, as I said most (if not all) domestic houses situate their thermostat and control rad in the hallway. This can be a problem if your most commonly used room, living room for example, is larger, has an inadequately sized radiator or less insulated than the hallway. This means you may have to set your hallway thermostat well above 21c before your living room reaches 21c. So you end up overheating the rest of the house if you don't have TRVs to compensate, costing you a lot more in heating bills. I've been in two properties where the above is a pain, even though they had TRVs. One was a tiny hallway about a meter away from the thermostat, so the whole heating system would shut off way too early to heat the other rooms, , and the other had an undersized living room radiator so both never got to desired temp without setting the hallway thermostats to nuclear meltdown settings. In both cases I relocated the thermostats into the living rooms and kept their perspective radiators on highest settings to act as the control radiators. One was easy as it worked over Wi-Fi and the other was nicely wired to the back of the living room so just had to drill and push wires through and reconnect. Seems more sensible to put them in the most commonly used rooms to me.

Most useful thing I’ve learned for ages. Thanks

Great explanation! Maybe one day someone will realise that it's better to print the temperature rather than a meaningless number on the thermostat.

Really Simple and concise way of explaining how TRV works. Well done

Most useful video I've seen in ages. Didn't realise they worked like that. Makes far more sense now. Thanks

Well done James as you have great demonstration about how TRV's are working.

One of the most useful videos I've seen so far. Great presentation👏🏼

Very helpful, i just moved from a tropic country to EU. This thing is very new to me

Great video again! One thing I'm struggling to get the wife to understand is the thermostat. Oh my word I have given up trying to explain!! I installed a smart stat (tado) and she insists on turning it up when she gets in the house because it's cold. The heating hasn't had chance to warm the house up!! Even worse she doesn't set the higher temp for an hour or anything...oh no, she sets it to permenant (or until I realise and turn it back to auto). Anyway, rant over and keep up the good work. I'll be showing this one to the kids to see if they'll belive it now haha

Thank you very much for this lovely video and the demonstration. It was very helpful for me to understand TRV and how the valve work.

Thank you, very informative. Did not have a clue to use these valves in the past but now I do. Thank you so much.

Hi James, that's really well explained. I have spent so many hours explaining this to clients over the years. I'll send them here from now on. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

Thanks for that,really well explained and great demo. So for most people set your TRV on 3 and leave it be.

Good video had them all on 5 (max) for years hopefully the lower settings will save a little on the bills

Messiah!! I've been trying to get the Mrs to understand how these work for 6 Months, never listens. You managed it in 5 minutes😂😭

Thank you so much for your fun video which I hope will help me finally explain TRVs to stop people turning them up to 5 and leaving in an enjoyable way. :)

Great video! Turned out that I was setting it up wrong after all!! Thanks for that great video, really illustrated how does a TRV work!

I’ve only just found your channel 👍🏻 it’s good to find this information explained probably.. in uk English.. so now I’m gonna go binge watch on your uploads, learn a few tricks and understand things I wasn’t sure off..👍🏻 great stuff

my family wouldnt make it 12mins to get the info, the brilliant info. We need a family friendly version that's only 3-4mins long..

This is revolutionary. I didn't even know those things were thermostats. I assumed they were just graduated taps.

Thanks, knowing this makes me relax 3:00 in the morning. I just sleep in a new house and having nightmare because of radiator acting weird. 👍

You're my number 1 go to guy for for all this plumbing shit. LOVE YOUR WORK

You are a natural teacher! Really good presentation. Thank you 😊

I can't believe I just wasted 12 minutes watching a video about radiators... ironically, it wasn't a waste at all!? Totally just hyper-tweaked a raditor setting in my living room because of this! I AM RESPONSIBILITY ADULT NAO! (thanks dude)

Excellent video - should save a fortune this winter.

I absolutely love these types of videos James. I’m a mechanical engineer so love stuff like this.

I didn't realise it was the surrounding air temperature that opened and closed the valve i thought it was the water temp, well you learn something new every day, thanks great vid, i would like to ask why all my valves are stuck closed and I have to remove the top part to get the valves to open.

Gald to know how they finally work wasn't sure if the numbers meant the water was that temp or what, keep them coming!

Got the honeywell smart ones recently, amazing system. Nice explanation - I've sent it to my Dad!

I will hold my hands up and say I didn't know this!!! Great vid! Keep up the good work!

My last place had TRVs. Set them to 3. The radiator got hot, the valve got hot, the radiator shut off... the room was freezing. Lovely and warm beside the radiator, freezing in the rest of the room. 20 minutes later it turned the radiator back on again for 5 minutes and shut it off again. Took hours to heat the room. So I set it to 5. I don't care how many times people try to sell me these things as "room thermostats", they are not, they do not do that, they regulate the temperature *beside the radiator*. I don't care what temperature it is beside the radiator, I care what temperature it is on the sofa and the TRV will not know that. So in my new house I am fitting thermo-electric valves and I will control them with a room thermostat so if the room is below set-point temp the radiator will be on, regardless of how hot it is beside the damn thing. /rant.

Alive and kicking ! You are still a young man James. Great video

This is an excellent demo. I'll show this to my family if they ask.

Thank you SO much! Exactly what I was after and more! Also helped with my fear of plumbing too, to see what is actually going on.

that's amazing, haha, how simple yet smart these things are... and I was about to get a "Smart" TRV, now that I know, I simply need to set it correct, problem solved of having too warm in my room.

Brill explanation and demo of how these work Thanks

Do these TRV's rely on your heating always being switched on? Please clear up any misconceptions I make but if your heating is switched off and the TRV detects the room is cold it will allow more water flow into the radiator, but won't that water be cold if your heating is not already switched on? Would it only benefit once the heating system was in use? I ask this because obviously not many households will have their heating on 24/7. Great video, really helpful

😂😂 nice one. No matter how many times I explain this to customers I know when I leave they turn them all back up to 5!

Love it , l am a lady & now understand thankyou 😁

Really good vid. Well paced. What about adding a bit about the Lock Shield on the return pipe?