Heating problem

JohnnyCrash

Have a sealed system,one rad not working.Tried bleeding it.to no avail.If i turn off all the working rads,the non-working one works alone.but when the rest are turned back on,it goes cold again.Any ideas?

Bards

JohnnyCrash wrote: »

Have a sealed system,one rad not working.Tried bleeding it.to no avail.If i turn off all the working rads,the non-working one works alone.but when the rest are turned back on,it goes cold again.Any ideas?

same happens mine, I've been told that the pump is too small for the system

JohnnyCrash

Cheers for reply. The system did work fully until recently so i reckon the pump should be adequate.

contakt23

try tuning the thermostat up a bit on the boiler

Raze_them_all

JohnnyCrash wrote: »

Cheers for reply. The system did work fully until recently so i reckon the pump should be adequate.

That could be the clue it could be on it's last legs, could be a blockage, loads of reasons tbh, I'll ask the cousin and see what he says

JohnnyCrash

Only a new condenser boiler fitted in the last 12 mths ,hopefully it isnt on its last legs.ha ha ha.Has to be something simple.All the rest of the rads work,so it cant be the boiler. The"not working"rad works on its own,so it cant be the rad. The system is at 1 bar, so its not low pressure.Not much left.

Lump

Well if it's only 12 months since it was installed it'll be under warrenty surely?

fraido

I asked my husband, he used to be a boiler service man. He says you need to get your system balanced. Its not a big job but is best done by a plumber who knows what he s doing. Or he says try closing all the valves a little bit on all the other rads and make sure both valves on the dodgy rad are open.

JohnnyCrash

The dilemma is the system did work perfectly well,even with the new boiler fitted.Have all the other rads turned down,still no difference.Only have the on-off valve open on the problem rad,left the other valve alone as that is the balancing valve and i didnt mess with any of those.

JohnnyCrash

The boiler is fine.Established that thro process of elimination

Jeege

Well, it's a good job that the problem radiator is in the master bedroom, where your lovely girlfriend can keep you warm... :P

Stephen

Moved from Kilkenny City forum.

JamesM

Tha circulating pump may be faulty, or turned down to the lowest speed.
Jim.

deadl0ck

HI all - don't mean to thread hijack, but I'm having the exact same problem (Please let me know if I should post this to a new thread and I will).

There is an upstairs rad in the house not working - it had been working up to a few months ago, but not the weather is cold it's time to fix it.

The rad works if you bleed it out (no air - just water) so I had assumed the return valve on the rad was blocked. I bought 2 new valves (just basic ones - no TRVs, for flow and return) and fitted them last night (after draining the upstairs portion of the central heating). When I replaced the valves I also flushed out the radiator with a hose to make sure it's not blocked.
Now with the new valves fitted it's still the same !
Also - the flow and return pipes to the rad are working as I drained the system via the return pipe for the dodgy rad...
Could it be a balancing issue ??? I'm not sure how to do this, but I'm going to try closing all rads upstairs and see if the bad rad works and slowly bring the others back online. Any suggestions / advice would be great !

Again - if I should post this in a new thread let me know and I'll do so, but seemed pointless to have 2 threads with the same issue at the same time.

Thanks !

JohnnyCrash

Is your system open or sealed?i.e. fed from tank or pressurised?

deadl0ck

It's gravity fed from small tank in attic

JohnnyCrash

is the lockshield valve open?

deadl0ck

Sorry - but what's a lockshield valve ?

JohnnyCrash

There are 2 valves on your rads. one which you can turn on and off by hand,the other,you pull off the cover and adjust it with a spanner.This one is used for balancing.

deadl0ck

Ah - OK.

That valve is fully open right now. I'll need to check the other rads in the house to see what state/position the valves are on them.

I just talked to someone who told me I should open both valves fully (on the problem rad) and close all other upstairs rad valves (both) and see if the problem rad gets heat, and if it does, then open the flow valve and "tinker" with the return (lockshield ) valve until I get a good balance of heat on all the rads. Does that sound right ?

JohnnyCrash

Kind of.Dont know if its neccessary to close lockshields.As you know,they cant be tampered with accidentally,so they are most probably set ok.It would be useful if you knew the heating order of your rads i.e. which gets hot 1st,2nd etc..This will determine how to balance them i.e. the 1st to heat will have the lockshield nearly closed,the 2nd open a little,the 3rd a little more and so on. Hopefully,this will be of some help

JohnnyCrash

JohnnyCrash wrote: »

Have a sealed system,one rad not working.Tried bleeding it.to no avail.If i turn off all the working rads,the non-working one works alone.but when the rest are turned back on,it goes cold again.Any ideas?

Hi all,got the rad working in the end after much tinkering about.In the end,what sorted it was upping the pressure to 1.5 bar.
P.S. it was a plumber/boiler man that told me 1 bar was plenty.Doctors differ,patients die,eh!
Many thanks to all who took time to reply.:)

deadl0ck

Me too actually !

I had to take the rad off again and flush out the flow pipe by connecting a hose to it and letting it out he window.
I left the header tank supplying water also, and let it run for about 10 mins.

I also flushed the return pipe (again), this time back through the rad by connecting a pipe to the flow part of the rad so basically the return flushed out through the rad and out the window.

After all this it worked fine - I'm pretty sure there was air stuck somewhere !

Thanks all for the advice !