radiator question

spaceboy

We have just moved house and the living room radiator I not heating up. I have checked to see if there is air in the radiator but there isn't. At the bottom of the radiator on the opposite side to the thermostat there I a little brass valve thing at the pipe join which the radiator bleed key fits, but I have no idea what it is for. Any ideas?

Stooby2

If it looks like one of these - http://www.screwfix.com/p/drain-!!!!-type-b-light-pattern-15mm/49284

then it's the drain point for the heating system. Leave it well alone as the washers can fall apart in them when they're undone and unless you're draining the system, you're going to have a Christmas Eve plumbing fiasco trying to stop it leaking.

There could be a number of issues - sludged radiators for example. If you don't know much about theating, it would be worth getting someone in who does.

spaceboy

It's not quite the same but I'm going to leave it anyway and get a plumbing/heating engineer to look at it and service the boiler and ask them about removing the gas fire which looks like it contains more dust than anything else.