Is it worth replacing radiators??

kevandkeira

Hi,
During this cold weather we have had our heating on all day when at home & we are still cold, it doesn't heat the rooms at all.
In our old property the radiators would be really hot to the touch, in this property they are warm/hot (if that makes sense).
We would love to replace the whole system (back boiler) but we just cant afford to at the moment.
So my question is would it be worth while replacing all of the radiators for now, as the others are really old. Would that improve the temperature??
Also what is the difference between the single & double radiators??
Thankyou

gavinp

Have you bled the radiators to get rid of any air in them ? That will improve things if there is any trapped air.

Another option worth considering when the temperature improves is flushing out the system. Turning the heating off and draining the heating down, putting some special cleaner in the system (£20) to circulate for a week (heating works normally during the week) and then switching the heating off again for an hour or so and draining it out again and putting some new corrosion inhibitor (another £20) has certainly made our radiators work better.

When you look at radiators, you are interested in the BTU value - higher value means more heat given out but also more fuel used to heat them up. Double radiators put out more heat than single ones of a similar size.

I would recommend you try the cheap fixes first before looking at radiators and boilers.

Thanks

Gavin

pramsay13

If they've never been all that warm double check your temperature settings at the boiler and crank it up a bit.

keystone

Roomstat setting? TRV (if any) settings?

Cheers

kevandkeira

Thanks Gavin,
All radiators were bled a few days ago, as my sons bedroom radiator wasn't heating at the top.
Also last month all radiators were drained & refilled, due to the water tank being replaced.
We will definitely try the cleaner though.
Thanks

kevandkeira

pramsay13 wrote: »

If they've never been all that warm double check your temperature settings at the boiler and crank it up a bit.

Hi,
We have a back boiler, am I right in believing that we turn the radiator's up via the dial underneath the fireplace?? If so this is up as high as it can go.
Thanks

antilles

The type of radiators will make a difference as well. When we moved into our house we had a new boiler installed, but retained the existing radiators (after cleaning and flushing the whole system out), our older style rads didn't have fins like the new ones and despite being massive the rooms were freezing.

So far we've replaced 2/3 of the radiators with newer ones and it makes a massive difference, and saves space as the older rads were monsters.

Pete*G_4

do you have seperate thermostats on each radiator? check they're turned up. also, what type of radiators do you have? single/double panel?

Canucklehead

Hi

If your rads are old and tatty looking then you might want to replace them.If not then chemical cleaning /flushing will clear some of the gunk out .They will probably never be as good as new though.
The boiler should be able to heat the water in the rads better than you describe.Or the system has been extended a lot.
Has the boiler been serviced ? (a back boiler should be serviced every year a least) It may not be working at its optimum output.

GSR.

kevandkeira

Pete*G wrote: »

do you have seperate thermostats on each radiator? check they're turned up. also, what type of radiators do you have? single/double panel?

The radiators are single except for 1 in our dining room which was recently replaced, this is double & is the only radiator with a thermostat on.

kevandkeira

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi

Has the boiler been serviced ? (a back boiler should be serviced every year a least) It may not be working at its optimum output.

GSR.

The boiler was serviced in the summer & no problems were found.