One radiator not working

Anglichanin

My heating system is a couple of years old and has been working fine from a (downstairs) combi boiler which runs well, it seems. The radiators upstairs and in the kitchen run fine but the one in the sitting room seems to have just stopped giving heat. I swapped the adjustable TRV valve with the kitchen radiator and there is no difference- either one opens or closes- and I can fully turn the lockshield valve at the other side to open (at which point the pipe into the lockshield runs hot) or to closed (at which point the pipe into the lockshield goes cold). Whatever I do, the pipe beneath the TRV remains cold. I have bled the radiator and clear water always comes straight out.
Does anyone have anything I could try, please, before I call an engineer? Glad the weather is warming up at the moment!
Thanks
James

rob7475

Hi,

Could be a blockage somewhere. You could try turning all the other radiators off and fully opening the valves on the one that isn't working. This should increase the water pressure going to that radiator and may clear any blockage.

Another possibility. Could be the actual pin on the TVR valve that's stuck down. You could try taking the trv head off, spraying a bit of wd 40 around the pin and a gentle tap with a hammer may free it up. I've had this happen before - just make sure you don't bend the pin when you tap it.

Hope these help.

Thanks,

Rob

Stevefromdonny

I had this situation when I moved into my house, the heating hadn't been used for a few months and the living room radiator pipes are the only pipes that go under the ground floor - hence the lowest. It seems sludge had collected here and stopped the living room rad from working. I turned all the other rads off and ran the pump only (I had a system that would let me do this). After 10 mins of circulating the water through that rad, I turned the boiler back on. It worked.

Anglichanin

Thanks for that. I put WD40 on the TRV, tapped it with a hammer, then turned off all the other radiators, and some heat came into the lounge radiator. I left it a while, turned the other downstairs radiators on and there is still heat in the lounge radiator, though noticeably less than in the others.
Sludge in the pipes does seem to be a possibility, though the radiator has worked well before and hasn't been left off for any length of time.
Thanks for the help- it has certainly improved and I am getting some heat now.

Anglichanin

Just an update in the hope that it may help others and perhaps help pinpoint my own problem. I tried to balance my radiators by opening the lockshield valves wider on the radiators which heat up first. It does not seem to have quite done the trick.
It seems, having experimented, to come down to this: if I have the radiator in the kitchen on, there is no heat in the lounge radiator. Does anyone have an idea what this points to? The house was renovated and the radiators replaced by the previous owners 3 years or so ago, but I wonder if the pipes were not replaced and might be sludged up, but it is only recently that the lounge radiator has stopped heating up.

Ruski

You've balanced it the wrong way around! Close down the lockshields on the ones that heat up first... normally the ones nearest the boiler... and open up the ones furthest away

HTH

Russ

Anglichanin

Sorry- thanks, Ruski- my post was muddled. I did balance them the correct way, as you explained, and should have written 'opening the lockshield valves wider on the radiators which heat up last'- the lounge radiator lockshield is open the widest as a result. D'oh!

deejaybee

I always get confused when reading about TRV's and lockshields..:o

Just had a quick look at one of my rads:

Is the TRV the one that has bleed point attached ? , and lockshield the other side ?

what does TRV stand for ?


Thanks from clueless me..

Anglichanin

I only learned the terms yesterday...... TRV is the Thermostatic Radiator Valve, which is the one you can manually turn to adjust, and the lockshield is on the other side of the radiator, sometimes with a smaller adjustable head or sometimes with a pin which requires a spanner to twist. Both protrude from the bottom of your usual radiator, whereas you usually bleed them from separate points at the top.

deejaybee

Cheers bud ! I double-checked and see that not all of my rads have the TRV fitted .

At least when I get local gas tech round to service boiler and make sure rads are set up ok, I will have half a clue what he's talking about

Previous owner has British Gas to do servicing etc, but I don't really want to go there..

Sorry for interrupting your thread, will sling my hook now !

Ruski

Hijack away!

We all need to learn something new every day