Oil heating - Rads not coming on

LFC Murphy

I just got oil there for the first time for my new house yesterday.
I turned it on yesterday evening for 20 mins as a check and found that only the water in the tank was being heated.

I moved just before the summer, and know the builder checked if it was working......... Am I missing something? a tap, nob, something that will get the hot water into the rads.

Or should I get the builder back?

Thanks

Rabies

They could be air locked. Use the key to release them. If not that, then I'm not too sure.

mukki

open taps on both sides of the rads, if only a few are heating, close the taps on the hot ones fully then open then about 1 turn

find the pump and follow its wires to the stat , turn stat down to the lowest seting and if it ticks you should be able to feel the vibrations in the pump of it spinning, if not stat could be gone or pumps trip switch could be gone,if pump gets hot but doesn't vibrate, then pump is gone

hamsterboy

You'll probably have to bleed the radiators of air if it's the first time you've used them. The builder/plumber should have left you a small bleeder key that you use to loosen the bleeder nut on the radiator.
Turn on the boiler and loosen the nut . Air will be pushed out of the radiator and do this until water spurts out (have a rag handy to stop the water getting on the wall, it can be really dirty).

pbergin

Check if the pipes leading to the rads are hot, if they are the rads are probably just turned off. Otherwise it is probably your termostat is turned too low or there could be a manual valve (probably in hot press) to turn heating on\off

Yakuza

I have two valves I can cut off the flow of water to the ground and first floors, so that the gas just heats the water cylinder in the summer. Perhaps your system has something similar. Ask the builder about a "summer water" switch or something.

Also, if it's the first time the rads have been used, there is more than likely air trapped in the pipes. You can get a radiator key in any hardware shop.

crosstownk

pbergin wrote:

Otherwise it is probably your termostat is turned too low

I'd check this first before you go to much bother trying to find a fault that doesn't exist. Given that you hot water cylinder is heating it would appear that the system is firing up and the pump is running. If all the rads are cold then it really does seem like the thermostat is the place to start.

Dilbert75

In our system, there's a switch, like a light switch, in the hot press - this activates the motorised valve which allows the boiler to either heat the hot water tank only or the tank + the radiators. We didn't know what it was for until we switched it off by accident and found the radiators stone cold.

LFC Murphy

There was a switch. Flicked it and he presto........ thanks folks had a warm nite last nite.

Thanks