We always thought Lockshield Valves were the SAME!!? WHO KNEW!?

A short video to support our ultimate guide to balancing heating systems article www.heatgeek.com/balancing-hea...
We show you what to look out for to save you a ton of time balancing heating systems!
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[@liamknowles6658]

Absolutely love the content you guys are putting out. Really informative but still entertaining. Keep it up boys!

[@siesieandsav2726]

Love this! Feels like good old school days xx

[@UrbanPlumbers]

I second what Terry says - a video on auto bypass would be great.

[@opentrail]

Great video thanks for sharing all the detail.

[@hotunhotunhiflodrytraptund5736]

Good content Adam, well presented and easy to understand.

[@HeatGeek]

Please share

[@Terrylambert7203]

Great Video introducing valve authority. Would love to see one on auto bypass valves, well done chaps 👍

[@ParkesPlumbing]

awesome vid guys

[@thomassmith7819]

Great video, thank Adam. I’d been struggling to get 3 radiators going on a 17 radiator microbore system. Now all is hot. Turns out the way I’d been told how to balance systems does next to nothing.

[@Deano5879]

Brilliant video. Thanks again guys 👍

[@HeatGeek]

Make sure you check the site out. That's where the gold is!!! Also.. please help by sharing❤

[@MarkBallardLTD]

Good content as usual

[@dan123collins]

It looks like I have regutecs fitted to a few of my radiators ! As they don’t look like normal lockshields ( the exposed shaft when you take off the plastic cap / no plastic cap ) I though they were just wierd elbow and darn’t ever take off the cap encase I caused a leak ha ! Interestingly on the radiators fitted with the regutecs have oventrop TRV’s which actually have a flow restriction function it seams ( had one apart in my garage ) I now know that all lock shields aren’t made equally, I’ve got some rubbish on/off ones upstairs and they are horrible to try and control flow. Great video as always, I’m learning loads and I’m not even a heating engineer 👍

[@myatix1]

Thanks for sharing! Can you do this for an underfloor heating manifold flow valves?

[@mike-ology22]

Hello mate. Thank you for this information, its very helpful

[@HeatGeek]

No probs. Checkout heatgeek.com And also our courses courses.heatgeek.com

[@brianjohnson6143]

Such educational content & well happy I fell upon this. One quick question is..... apart from potentially needing my whole system balanced (underfloor heating not working anymore !) could I just purely have lock shields either end of my two lounge radiators ? Obviously I need to understand the lock shields flow rates & authority, but looking at removing the ugliness of most TRV's & would like my radiators more or less looking like a Towel Rail. Again, many thanks for this ridiculously educational video, keep up the great work

[@dannywilkins887]

Good vid!-subscribed

[@Ifitaintbrokedontfixit]

It would have been good to see the IMI Eclipse AFC valve in your demo. Good video though. Something no one ever does, I know I have never done this but I should do to see how different valves perform.

[@UpsideDownFork]

After watching, I went and had a look through my box of valves. Initially I was surprised that the lockshield Drayton supplies with a TRV4 or their RT414 had the biggest bore for maximum flow and didn't seem to have many turns to open it fully. I initially thought why is the lockshield with the RT212 performing better? At least to my untrained eye from what you video teaches. The cheaper Lockshield has a smaller restriction in it and seems like it has more accurate adjustment at the fine end. Anyway, it took me a few moments and then I realised that the RT414/TRV4 valve body should be balanced on the TRV end with Drayton's key. Also another sidenote, the Plumbright branded TRV and Lockshield that I have here also looks like it could be a good performer. Nice restriction and appears to have good control at the smaller end of things. Haven't actually tested any as you have, just eyeballing them to give me an idea.

[@dialog245]

I have smart Trv's fitted so it's not unusual to just have on one/two or three rads on at a time and I have all the lock shields fully open (I have a 1970's system boiler ). Is this wrong ? Maybe causes an issue with delta T ?

[@n0spam911]

What tools I need and how do I balance as a DIY user

[@B1cam]

Absolutely fascinating stuff. I like how you can turn on/off those valves without messing up set flow rate, you can also set the flow rate on the Trv4 and Honeywell’s counterpart. Would be interesting to see how pegler would fair in this experiment as they are regarded as a gold standard valve. ?

[@HeatGeek]

Good shout. Got a link for a specific one?

[@HeatGeek]

Assume you mean pegler ofcourse?

[@B1cam]

Hi. It’s the pegler terrier. I used them on my house and on jobs for costumers with larger houses, the sort of place where you would want to find a good valve if you were to arrive in ten years time.

[@antonycollis5284]

Great video, who would have thought with that cheap 3/4 valve, interesting to see the test results.

[@aryehelectricalltd7247]

best video ever

[@brackcycle9056]

Radical T shirt ! ... Good info.

[@mcampbell1589]

I have the danfoss is there anyway of adding a white knob to it to adjust it rather than having to get out an Allen key every time?

[@gopikrishnayogarajah]

Can you share a link for that cheapest but quite good valve please ? Thanks

[@M0j0]

Does the smaller aperture and resistance of flow hurt cop on heatpumps?

[@imaginehomes3871]

I use Altecnic Eclipse valves which have a large bore (about 14mm on 15mm pipe) and 13mm travel). What do you think of those? The heating is quieter and warms up quicker than with most others I've used which have small bores and little travel.

[@HeatGeek]

I've not seen them tbh. It's not the total amount of travel though.. it's the total amount of travel within the seat.. to know if it has good authority is pretty simple though. You just have to look up its KV value.

[@luckystrike656]

Is it better to have them as closed as possible or as open as possible? Assuming that the heat demand is satisfied.

[@nathanielthomas7995]

Helpful vid. Thanks! Maybe do a vid on how you balance a system, especially with those lock shields which are just iso valves. 🙄

[@HeatGeek]

I’ve just released a course detailing everything you need to know to become a heating genius! What’s more it’s been recognised by the UK government department BEIS which have offered to heavily subsidised the first 300 spaces! courses.heatgeek.com/

[@rayhousen4373]

Great video, dodgy t-shirt! ✝😄

[@finnupton5751]

Do love the channel, really great info but have to say that t-shirts an instant trigger point

[@Jody669]

Cool t shirt

[@terryfinch9319]

Where can I get a heat geek hat ?

[@patrickwheeler2646]

Bribe one of the staff or find us at a trade show 😁

[@copperskills3973]

Where can you get the IMI Valves?

[@HeatGeek]

Got it from Smith's brothers mate

[@garytango]

👍👍

[@JeremyCobb]

It’s the little stuff

[@chrisb4009]

A plug and a gland are not the same thing. The valve gland/packing is what stops liquid leaking from the stem of the valve.

[@HeatGeek]

Thanks for clarifying

[@nn-uj1iv]

An increased local headloss due to small opening through a valve doesn't give greater flow control what BS. What matters if you can set to different opening from shut to fully open. Learn some hydraulics and bernouli equation.

[@chrisb4009]

A plug and a gland are not the same thing. The valve gland/packing is what stops liquid leaking from the stem of the valve.

[@HeatGeek]

The gland is the whole inner part, gland packing is what holds the water back around the stem, the plug is the bottom part of the valve.

[@chrisb4009]

Heat Geek a valve gland is part of the valve that stops liquid passing leaking from the stem. On a small valve like a lock shield it’s made up of the top part of the casting, a back nut and some sort of packing. On good quality valves this packing is normally graphite or PTFE. On cheap ones I’ve seen materials like cardboard.

[@HeatGeek]

@@chrisb4009 I see. Thanks

[@immers2410]

@@chrisb4009 I get the impression that this guy sometimes talks out of his arse