Radiator and general heating

Islander_bloke

Malc,

Thanks for the input. The rads that are only getting "warm" are old style single panel rads with no fins thats why i suspect new rads may be the answer. You may be right tho with the fact the system may need a clean out because nowhere in the boiler service records does it show a clean out happening to the system. I may be in a catch 22. Should i push the landlord for a clean up of the system (understand this could be around £400) and see what like or try for new rads. We had the heating on last nite for a test with the heat alarm. Dining room with the new double rad with fins into the green within an hour. After four hours the rooms with the old rads the alarm light was only at amber. Never got to green.

macman

Radiators don't 'wear out' just because they are old. They can only be sludged up if the rest of the system is hot. Get the system flushed or power flushed, a CH engineer can advise what is required.
A boiler service is purely what it says-the rest of the system is not touched.

malc_b

Islander_bloke wrote: »

Malc,

Thanks for the input. The rads that are only getting "warm" are old style single panel rads with no fins thats why i suspect new rads may be the answer. You may be right tho with the fact the system may need a clean out because nowhere in the boiler service records does it show a clean out happening to the system. I may be in a catch 22. Should i push the landlord for a clean up of the system (understand this could be around £400) and see what like or try for new rads. We had the heating on last nite for a test with the heat alarm. Dining room with the new double rad with fins into the green within an hour. After four hours the rooms with the old rads the alarm light was only at amber. Never got to green.

If the old rad are only getting warm not hot then that is reason why those rooms are cold. The first step is to try to get some balance in the system. It is possible that the old system is clogged but on the other hand it could just be that the new radiators have a lot better flow. You could do a quick balancing by just shutting off the dining radiator and seeing if then the rest of the house heats up better. My gut feel is that a new rad has been fitted to the dining room and the system hasn't been rebalanced. What you need to do is to close down the lockshield valve on dining room radiator until all the radiators heat up at the same rate.

Google radiator balance for a detailed explanation but in simple terms what you are doing is balancing the water flow so each rad get's a fair share. You do this by partially closing the lockshield valve. In my house the LSV range from fully open to 1/2 a turn depending on the radiator type, how far it is from the boiler and the pipework.