Help, new radiators leaking in money pit house

emma12345

Help, please can anybody give me some advice here. 4 radiators have split, gone bang, whatever over the last few years causing thousands of pounds of damage to carpets, furniture, house etc over the last few years.

So we had most of them replaced.

One we didn't replace then developed a leak, we had that replaced and the plumber also replaced the pump as it was furred up and not working properly (about a year ago)

One of the previously replaced radiators that was less than 2 years old then developed a leak. Not having any money to replace it we switched it off (and left a dish out to catch the leaks!)

Today another one of the previously replaced radiators is leaking and has a huge scary looking bubble in the side that looks as if it's going to explode.

Help, we're paying out for the same jobs over and over again. I've spent thousands. I can see myself replacing these radiators again and the same thing happening again.

BTW last couple of years thermostat doesn't seem to work. I put it on to 60 degrees and the room is 90 degrees plus. Probably what's ruining the radiators?

Boiler (less than 3 years old) has started to make clunking noises these last couple of month. Water has started to get mega hot too. I can't afford to replace it.

This house is a jinxed money pit and I don't know what to do. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

roger196

Sounds like there is no inhibitor in the system. This prevents rads rusting through from the inside. You need a new competent plumber/ corgi to replace rads with better quality ones... see www.screwfix.com and look for 82855. These have a manuf guarantee of 12 years. Even the cheaper ones have a five year guarantee. With proper inhibitor in the system, you can, if lucky, get up to thirty years out of a radiator.
The whole system needs flushing, probably dosing with boiler silencer ( sentinel X-200 to descale boiler, flushing again and the dosing with a long term inhibitor like X-100... part no 79683. I've given the part numbers from the screwfix catalogue so that you can learn a bit more about your central heating system.

emma12345

Thanks for that. I understand the inhibitor bit now (I think), however would that affect the temperature of the radiators?

They became burning hot - too hot to touch - and the rooms downstairs were 90 degrees, even though the thermostat was set to 60.

The hot water has also because scalding hot this last week too, is that connected?

Thanks for your help

roger196

Where are the thermostats? There is usually a room thermostat which controls the desired room temperature, often found on a wall in the dining room or sitting room. Set this to 20degrees centigrade. If you have a separate hot water tank, there should be a thermostat attached to the side of the cylinder. Set this to about 50 degrees. Depending on the type of boiler, there may be a temperature control for the central heating water, set this to 82 degrees centigrade. If there is another one for the hot water set this to about 50 degrees.
Make sure you are adjusting the right control. You should have a users guide for the boiler which explains the controls and the recommended temperature settings. If not go the manufacturers website and download a copy. If the temperature gauge is reading high, just reduce the related control to underread.
If this does not work, you will need to post the make and type of your boiler, and what controls you have on the system.

keith969

What make of radiators did you have fitted? If they are something decent like Stelrads they should last many years. Sounds like there are other problems with the system though, you need to get a competent heating engineer in to take a look.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

keith969 wrote: »

What make of radiators did you have fitted? If they are something decent like Stelrads they should last many years. Sounds like there are other problems with the system though, you need to get a competent heating engineer in to take a look.

Or get the old plumber back who can send them back to the supplier & replace them with ones which last as long as they are supposed to.

Or he can admit that he didn't install them properly.......

Either way its one or the other.

27col

My rads are already over 30 yrs old. I have never had a problem with any of them. A couple have been replaced with larger ones, but not because they were faulty. A few valves have been replaced with TRV's. They have had inhibitor from day one. They are just bog standard rads that you can buy anywhere quite cheaply. I can't help with the temperature problems, but it sounds as if you have a thermostat problem somewhere in the system.

Wookey

You need to get a full check done on your heating system, a few things to make sure about are, pump over if it is an open system, leakage other than at a rad ie on hidden pipework, heating inhibitor. Any one or even all of them will quickly destroy a heating system.

keystone

If the room stat hasn't been working its sounds as though its permanently "calling for heat". In that case you are relying on the boiler stat to shut the boiler down when the CH water gets too hot. If the boiler stat has also failed then the system will just get hotter and hotter.

This is, frankly, dangerous. Get someone in as soon as is practicable.

Cheers