New water supply pipe install with no drain off? Ok?

S

Safety First

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Company fitting new blue water supply have come in under boilers cold feed to join supply there. They have fitted a stop cock but no drain off. Is this ok, as their quote says they will do so.

Don't want to pick fault if perhaps they didn't need to for some reason....
I.e. like the central heating system has a drain off about 2 ft away but that's not the same thing as a drain off for the house cold water supply is it?
 
Yes it should really be there. To be honest, though, after a few years, drain offs are so unreliable that I would be looking for any other way possible to drain pipework rather than use a drain off that will either not work at all or will leak after its been used.
However, if its on their quote, you're paying for it so they should fit it.
 
So you can't 'invite' water from the household cold water into the central heating loop and drain down through that can you? I e. Via opening the loop filler?
 
Do you mean drain the cold water in the house via the heating pipework by way of the filling loop? In a word, NO.
You can drain most of the water from the mains pipework by shutting off the stopcock and then opening the lowest outlet, followed by opening the highest outlet. The lowest outlet is likely to be the kitchen tap or a garden tap. The highest outlet will be a loft tank ballcock or the highest cold tap if you have no loft tanks. The bit of water which may remain in the leg of the system you want to work on can usually be soaked up with an old towel.
Usually though, if you shut off the stopcock, and all outlets are closed, you can cut into the pipework or break open a joint without losing water. The water is held in the pipe by vacuum.
When I have needed to drain the entire system in an empty, unheated house in winter, I have closed the stopcock and then split the joint on the stopcock outlet and drained from there.
 
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