Radiator problem

dryan

Looking for some help here.

Have a problem where only the top of my radiators are heating up. I am running them of a solid fuel stove.
Have plenty of hot water. Stat for the circulating pump is set to 60 deg.
If i put thepump on constantly, the bottom of the rads will only get to luke warm while the top is heated properly.
Had a guy look at the radiators during the week, he took them off and cleaned them out - there was plenty of black gunk in them.

Any suggestions what to do next?

SC024

are they old rads, If so sounds like they could be sludged up

muffler

I'll move this to the Plumbing & Heating forum

DoneDL

Turn the stat down to 50 and balance the system. Is the heating solid fuel only or have you an oil boiler as a backup?

dryan

rads are newish - only about 10 years old.
Heating iis solid fuel only. no backup.

I was told that rads should heat from the bottom up??

Is it normal to have rads hotter on the top and only luke warm on the bottom?

heinbloed

A picture would show us more. are the radiators designed for the purpose? Was the system calibrated, optimised, balanced ?
Are there room thermostats or radiator thermostats? Is the CH system gravity fed, pumped, open, closed .....

Get a real heating engineer in.

The advice from DoneDL (

Turn the stat down to 50 and balance the system

) is to be taken with a pinch of salt:
If the heatexchanger in the solid fuel device is cooled down to far - below condensation point is usually below 60 degrees Celsius - the solid fuel burner can be ruined.
The entire heating system can become dangerous.
Condensate will drip onto the fuel and reduce it's actual thermal output, creosote deposits will be the consequence, chimney fires and poisoning.
The boiler would be used beyond it's designed parameters. Read the instruction manual.

Many Irish plumbers simply do not understand how to handle central heating systems, solid fuel being a mystery to many.

Concerning the thermal distribution in the radiators: there are different types of radiators for different purposes.

Billy Bunting

heinbloed wrote: »

Get a real heating engineer in.

The advice from DoneDL ( ) is to be taken with a pinch of salt:
If the heatexchanger in the solid fuel device is cooled down to far - below condensation point is usually below 60 degrees Celsius - the solid fuel burner can be ruined.
The entire heating system can become dangerous.
Condensate will drip onto the fuel and reduce it's actual thermal output, creosote deposits will be the consequence, chimney fires and poisoning.
The boiler would be used beyond it's designed parameters. Read the instruction manual.

Many Irish plumbers simply do not understand how to handle central heating systems, solid fuel being a mystery to many.

Concerning the thermal distribution in the radiators: there are different types of radiators for different purposes.

And just why would turning the pipe stat down to 50 cause the solid fuel device to not reach temperatures above 60, along with the usual scare mongering your also talking rubbish again. :rolleyes:

DoneDL

dryan wrote: »

rads are newish - only about 10 years old.
Heating iis solid fuel only. no backup.

Is it normal to have rads hotter on the top and only luke warm on the bottom?

Yes its normal if the boiler cannot match the heat requirements of the system, load the boiler and keep it going so the pump is close to being permanently on. You should be aiming for getting the rads equal in temperature all over.