HELP - How do I turn this rad/towel rail off?!?!

[AnnoyingPopUp]

Moved house recently and the bathroom has this towel rail (photo of bottom attached, showing the valves/knobs/whatever they’re called). It’s plumbed into the hot water tank so it heats up whenever the water does. And the bathroom is boiling, and I can’t turn the towel rail off.

Turning the right-hand knob (the longer one) fully in either direction doesn’t change anything. Towel rail still boiling whenever the hot water is on.

Turning the left-hand knob causes the knob to come off (photo 2).

Please can someone help before I boil to death?!

(I’ve googled - no joy. I don’t know the make/model, and can’t look behind the rail due to the layout of the bathroom).

Is PigletJohn still here?

Mine has the same set-up - always comes on when the water heats up, which TBH I've never had a problem with - the towels on it absorb most of the heat and I find it useful to dry them out.

It may be that the left hand knob is faulty. Possibly the previous owner never switched it off and it became stiff. Could you try turning the valve using a ratchet? Alternatively, it may be that the plumbing could be altered so that it comes on with the heating instead of the hot water (I've never done this so not sure), and you could then turn off the other radiators individually if you wanted to use the towel rail on its own.

Personally I would call a plumber / heating engineer as I would be afraid of damaging it.

Following as I have a similar problem!

I think you need to use a spanner or ratchet on the left hand one, it seems it’s broken if it’s just coming off, so use a tool to turn it clockwise with the knob off.

What kind of hot water tank do you have?

Are they actually valves or are they blanking plugs that blank off where the valve should be ? I suppose the only thing that gives me hope is the hole in the middle. Maybe you have to put a flat bladed screwdriver in there and turn it.

What is under the other cap ?

I guess it is possible they are like TRVs and the bit that presses down to switch the flow in and out is in the centre and stuck in.

Looking at the picture carefully the right hand knob is different - bigger. Maybe this is the on off valve or TRV.

I know that at least 1 radiator in a house shouldn't have a thermostatic valve on it - im not sure why but thats what my plumber told me 😂 Have all your other rads got thermostats?

to answer questions:

We have at least one other radiator without thermostatic valve so no worries there.

can I damage anything if I stick a screwdriver in there? - maybe I will have a go and will call a plumber if needed!

@GasPanic I have no idea - I’m not knowledgeable about valves at all. If the right-hand one is meant to be an on/off switch, it’s failing miserably….

thanks everyone

What is actually in the hole on the LHS one ? it could be a basic valve or it could be some sort of cap. If it is a cap you don't want to remove it.

The right hand side one is clearly bigger so that is most likely to be the valve you use to control the flow rate/temperature. Remember it will take a bit of time from turning the valve off to it actually cooling down. I would probably try putting it all one way and waiting to see what happens for an hour or so, then move it to the full opposite position and see whether that does anything.

I guess it is possible that the RHS is a TRV and the pin has stuck so it is fully on. In that case you will have to take the cap off and maybe try to lubricate the pin. you might find there is a little hole in the cap where you can insert a hex key to take it off.

Or maybe the end piece (lid will pop off revealing a screw).

The right hand one looks like a flow control valve which seems not to be working. The left hand one looks like a blanking piece, the screw could be a bleed valve (although I would expect that at the top). I wouldn't do anything with the left one particularly if the water is hot I would be worried about a hot water leak. A plumber seems like a good idea. If it's part of the hot water circuit you may not be able to turn it off, or there may be a couple of diverter valves somewhere that switch it in and out of the system, like for our water softener.

Looks like my mum's, she has a switch outside the bathroom to switch it off. Its an electrical switch which controls the diverter

💡 ah so I bet that's what the two switches are above my bathroom door - shower and towel rail! Will experiment later...

From the picture it looks like you put an allen key ( hex) in it to open / shut it off. Looks quite a big size maybe 8-10 mm

Ooh I hadn’t thought about an Allen key! I’ll try that….

(No switch above the door or in the airing cupboard).

Update: YES to the Allen key (it needs a 6mm one).

Thank you 😀

👍. We have exactly the same valves on our towel radiators.

Did this turn it off, @AnnoyingPopUp?
Because I’ve always wondered the same thing about our towel rails 😂

Well done!

Good stuff and well done to DIYExtension who spotted the hex key hole.

I could barely see it when I looked again.

@TeaandHobnobs yes it worked 👍

Yes, thank you @Diyextension and @GasPanic … very good spot! 🙏