little emergency

[richb2]

I am putting in a wood floor in my dining room. The baseboard radiator is too low to the floor for me to slide the new flooring under it. Someone recommended that I detach the radiator from the wall, push it up an inch or two, and reattach it. I started doing this, but the inlet copper pipe into the baseboard is now leaking. I have a torch and solder and flux. But there is water in the radiator. Do I need to drain the radiator first before soldering? How do I that?. At the oil burner?

[jadnashua]

A pipe needs to be dry before you can solder. Before you drain anything, make sure you turn the boiler off. There is normally a drain valve near the boiler. If it has an auto makeup fill valve, make sure that is turned off, too.

[master plumber mark]

re-soldering an old copper radaitor joint is
not something easy...thta just falls into place

at least not for me........

It is most likely dirty
inside the joint and you will probably be faced with
takeing the joint apart and cleaning the fittings....

you might need to blow pressurised air through that
]radiator to get the water out of the way...



goood luck....

[hj]

If moving the radiation caused a leak, then the joint was never made properly so it is going to be corroded inside the fitting. You will never get the fitting and copper clean, you will never get the flux to flow into the joint, and you will never get solder to enter the joint to make even a marginal sweat connection.