Saturday, December 01, 2007

Bleeding Hell



When bleeding a modern style radiator to relieve some pressure from a central heating system, the difference between tiny dribble and the bleed valve being completely disengaged and water pouring everywhere, is approximately one twentieth of gnat's whisker.

Just don't ask me how I know.

4 comments:

Rainbow dreams said...

I won't ask... but have noted... never know when it might come in handy :)

1 i z said...

Katie, in my experience, it's a bit of info that would be handy to recall about one nano-second before you make that fateful extra tiny turn of the screwdriver ;-)

Kathryn said...

I do love picture conjured by the gnat's whisker though of course I sympathise with your presumablyrather damp and bedraggled carpet.

1 i z said...

Kathryn, I believe insect whiskers are standard measurements in plumbing circles and come in useful for describing the distance between Arctic and Hades on certain shower dials and the degree of truth in the statement they've just made about what's wrong with your boiler and why it's going to take 3 days and cost 0.5 Morts to fix.

Morts being another plumbing unit of measurement; used to describe payment terms, 1 Mort equates to the remortgage value of an average family home.

As for the degree to which my carpet suffered as you so correctly presume, I'm unsure of the technical term, but f***ing drenched would probably sum it up well enough ;-)

Though could have been worse, I'm quietly quite proud that I battled valiently against the jet of water and managed somehow to re-engage the valve.

Plus as a friend who has suffered a similar fate pointed out, at least I had the good sense to allow the heating to cool right down before attempting work in the first place, so at least it wasn't scalding hot!