I am struggling to get a couple radiators to work. What could be the problem?

Albermarle

For the non bathroom radiator, I wonder if the TRV is stuck, or fitted wrongly .
OP - you see the grey knurled ring just below the white plastic TRV head?
Unscrew that ( you might need some pliers or a wrench just to get started) and the plastic head will come away . Do not worry there should be no leaks ( although always  best to know where your stoptap is ) .
See then if the radiator heats up after a few minutes.
If not you should see a small metal pin sticking up out of the valve. Get something metallic like a teaspoon and press down on the pin. It should move down a few mm and then spring back up again.
Sometimes they get stuck down, especially if not used over the Summer.

JadeHighland

Albermarle said:

For the non bathroom radiator, I wonder if the TRV is stuck, or fitted wrongly .
OP - you see the grey knurled ring just below the white plastic TRV head?
Unscrew that ( you might need some pliers or a wrench just to get started) and the plastic head will come away . Do not worry there should be no leaks ( although always  best to know where your stoptap is ) .
See then if the radiator heats up after a few minutes.
If not you should see a small metal pin sticking up out of the valve. Get something metallic like a teaspoon and press down on the pin. It should move down a few mm and then spring back up again.
Sometimes they get stuck down, especially if not used over the Summer.

Thanks. Is the only thing I need to do here is press that pin? It's hard to push down but comes back up. 

Albermarle

It sounds like it is working. When it is up it should mean the valve is fully open.

Is the heating on and if so is the radiator heating up ? ( leave the white plastic dial/top  off for now ) 

JadeHighland

Albermarle said:

It sounds like it is working. When it is up it should mean the valve is fully open.

Is the heating on and if so is the radiator heating up ? ( leave the white plastic dial/top  off for now ) 

Heating is on but that radiator is only getting slightly warm. 

WIAWSNB

Albe has this covered, and you've given good feedback.
To take it further, with ref to the white rad;
a) which pipe becomes warm first? 
b) the valve that isn't the TRV, it appears to have a normal control cap on it, which means that if you turn it, it adjusts that valve. Assuming so, note its current position - mark a dot on the top if you want. Now turn it clockwise until it stops. Note down - and report back - how many turns and part-turns this took.
c) now return it to its original position, and then turn it anticlockwise another one full turn.
Monitor that rad. 

WIAWSNB

The black towel rail is different. That does not have a TRV on it - it has two 'manual' valves.
So, you need to know what setting each is at - how 'open'.
Pull the cap off that second valve. Mark - use a pen, or a taped paper flag - its current position, and ditto for the other valve.
Now turn each one clockwise until it stops. It's then off. Tell us how many turns and part turns this took. 
Return them to its original positions.

JadeHighland

WIAWSNB said:

The black towel rail is different. That does not have a TRV on it - it has two 'manual' valves.
So, you need to know what setting each is at - how 'open'.
Pull the cap off that second valve. Mark - use a pen, or a taped paper flag - its current position, and ditto for the other valve.
Now turn each one clockwise until it stops. It's then off. Tell us how many turns and part turns this took. 
Return them to its original positions.

Is there such thing as a TRV valve without a dial? That second valve doesn't twist off like the other. It turns and stops like a TRV. I'll report back on the turns tomorrow. 

bjorn_toby_wilde

JadeHighland said:

WIAWSNB said:

The black towel rail is different. That does not have a TRV on it - it has two 'manual' valves.
So, you need to know what setting each is at - how 'open'.
Pull the cap off that second valve. Mark - use a pen, or a taped paper flag - its current position, and ditto for the other valve.
Now turn each one clockwise until it stops. It's then off. Tell us how many turns and part turns this took. 
Return them to its original positions.

Is there such thing as a TRV valve without a dial? That second valve doesn't twist off like the other. It turns and stops like a TRV. I'll report back on the turns tomorrow. 

It’s normally a manual valve rather than a TRV. It should turn anticlockwise until it’s fully open.

Towel rails often don’t have TRVs as you want them to be on whenever the heating is on.  The other end will be a lockshield so that it can be used to regulate the flow through the radiator to balance the system.

That’s why WIAWSNB is suggesting that you mark the lockshield valves so you know what position they have been set to.  Ideally the plumbers should have set these correctly but they don’t always.

WIAWSNB

JadeHighland said:

Is there such thing as a TRV valve without a dial? That second valve doesn't twist off like the other. It turns and stops like a TRV. I'll report back on the turns tomorrow. 

There are essentially two types of radiator valve - a TRV, and a 'manual'. 

The TRV, as you have found, has a spring-loaded 'pin' that sticks out, and when you press it firmly down it shuts the valve off. When you release it, it pops back up. The 'head' controls this by pressing down the right amount depending on the room temp.

Then there's the 'manual' valve. This has a 'spindle' which you turn, just like a tap. Turn it clockwise and it shuts the rad off, anti and it opens. It'll have a good 5-ish turns within that range.

If you fit a cap - a knob - on that spindle that engages with the spindle so it turns it, like the white one on the white rad looks to be, but might not, then it becomes a 'control' valve, which is one you'd usually adjust in order to control the amount of heat coming out that rad - its on and offability. Obviously, tho', if the other end has a TRV, you let that do the controlling instead, and you don't normally touch the other end.

Ok, if you pull off that 'control' knob and replace it with a 'cap' that doesn't engage with the spindle but just spins loosely ad infinitum, then that valve is now a 'lockshield' type. 

The idea is that each radiator in your circuit gets the right amount of flow for it to work equally - balanced - with the other rads. So, a larger rad's lockshield would be opened slightly more. A radiator at the end of the pipe run would ditto. Once the lockshield spindles are tweaked the right amount - 'balancing' your system - then the protective cap is pushed on and you don't touch it again. So, lockshield valves usually have that loose cap that doesn't turn the spindle - you need to remove it to gain access to the spindle each time.

The other - non TRV - valve on your white rad appears to have a 'control' cap, but it should still be considered a 'lockshield'. So, once it's set correctly you don't touch that end - the TRV does all the controlling.

I asked that you count how far open each valve is so that we can determine the current 'lockshield' positions, and also hopefully shed light on the cause of the lukewarm rads.

So, you mark the position - starting point - of each spindle. You then turn it clockwise until the valve stops - it's fully off. You note down how many turns and/or part-turns that takes. It could be a fraction of one turn, or a few turns.

If you could do that for the white valve, and then both towel rad valves, please. 

If any of these caps/knobs just spin loosely and are clearly not attached to the spindle, then pull them off first.

Please report back.  

Slinky

Have you tried turning off every other radiator in the house and seeing what happens? Do they get hot then?

We extended our house and had problems with the lounge taking a long time to warm up. Upstairs, where the boiler is and had all new piping, was nice and hot, downstairs where we had the original 1960s pipes plus new piping in the extended parts wasn't. Got around the problem by having a faster pump. Not much other option than digging up the floors to replace the pipework which we didn't want to do.