some of my radiators are not heating

jamminjamaica

Hi there

after the summer I turned back on the radiators at the valve on the radiator. however one in the sitting room downstairs wont heat althought the other in the sitting room heats.

one in the hallway downstairs is not working.

one in kitchen down stairs not working.

upstairs

one in master bedroom (upstairs) not heating

bathroom and bedroom 2 the radiators are working fine.

anyone got any suggestions? I have bled them but it doesnt seem to have helped.

mah_jong

Did you bleed them until the water came out?

Sorry if asking the obvious but one of mine took ages and ages with barely a hiss.

jamminjamaica

hi there

yes. I just dont knoe what is wrong with them. dont really fancy having to pay someone to come out and just turn a knob or something like that

Al_Mac

All turned on anti clockwise, thermostats not set to low?:beer:

Grumps

Probably air locks.

With the CH running, turn off ALL of the radiators that ARE working, and then turn off, ALL except one, of the radiators that AREN'T working. THEN bleed THAT radiator. When that gets hot. Select another one and do the same. And so on, until they all work.

I suppose, theorectically, that it is best to do the downstairs first, and then the upper levels, but the principle remains the same.

trumpet_2

Do you have a combi boiler, you may need to top up the system if the pressure is low.

uncle_buck_3

louisejamison wrote:

...after the summer I turned back on the radiators at the valve on the radiator...

You don’t say if you have thermostatic valves (TRV’s) on your radiators …if you do & these are the ones you turned off over the summer my guess is that the valve has jammed in the closed position. This is quite common with TRV’s.

Try opening & closing the valve a few times quickly, when the valve is in the open position try giving the body of the valve (the metal part) a few taps with a small hammer etc.
If this doesn’t work you can remove the head of the valve quite easily (the part with the numbers on), they are normally a screw on fit…if you look you will see the screw ring where the valve head screws to the valve body. Loosen this (finger tight) & remove the valve head to expose the body of the valve & you will see a thin metal pin sticking out of the top of the valve body, try pressing this down to see if it moves…if it doesn’t move down then it is jammed closed…you can free it off by pulling the pin up with some pliers or similar (Gently)
…when the pin comes up work it up & down a few times to make sure its free. Once it’s free replace the head of the valve.

I don’t understand why you turned off the radiator valves for the summer as no heating means cold radiators anyway.

jamminjamaica

uncle_buck wrote:

You don’t say if you have thermostatic valves (TRV’s) on your radiators …if you do & these are the ones you turned off over the summer my guess is that the valve has jammed in the closed position. This is quite common with TRV’s.

Try opening & closing the valve a few times quickly, when the valve is in the open position try giving the body of the valve (the metal part) a few taps with a small hammer etc.
If this doesn’t work you can remove the head of the valve quite easily (the part with the numbers on), they are normally a screw on fit…if you look you will see the screw ring where the valve head screws to the valve body. Loosen this (finger tight) & remove the valve head to expose the body of the valve & you will see a thin metal pin sticking out of the top of the valve body, try pressing this down to see if it moves…if it doesn’t move down then it is jammed closed…you can free it off by pulling the pin up with some pliers or similar (Gently)
…when the pin comes up work it up & down a few times to make sure its free. Once it’s free replace the head of the valve.

I don’t understand why you turned off the radiator valves for the summer as no heating means cold radiators anyway.

there are no thermostats on the radiators and it was just the knob on the end that I turned to the closed position. During the summer we just wanted hot water without having the heating on. we do not have control inside the house. just the boiler in a metal case outside.

uncle_buck_3

louisejamison wrote:

there are no thermostats on the radiators and it was just the knob on the end that I turned to the closed position.

Well I wasted my time with that lot then ...LOL

If you have no control over the HW & CH and the only way to stop the CH is to close the rads your system must be very old.
It could be a sludge build up that is stopping some of the rads working, to get rid of this the system will have to drained down & the rads & system pipe work flushed out with a hosepipe.

jamminjamaica

uncle_buck wrote:

Well I wasted my time with that lot then ...LOL

If you have no control over the HW & CH and the only way to stop the CH is to close the rads your system must be very old.
It could be a sludge build up that is stopping some of the rads working, to get rid of this the system will have to drained down & the rads & system pipe work flushed out with a hosepipe.

thanks for your advice. yes I would say the system is old. we bought the house 2 years ago. I had another go at the radiators tonight. managed to get the one in the bedroom going which leaves only 2 not working now. funny enough both are downstairs. the one in the hallway showed signs of heating then just went old again.