Some Rads not working

TankGuy

Hi Folks,
I am having an issue with some of my rads. I have Gas central heating. My Boiler is Glow Worm Economy Plus E40 and working fine.

I have bled the rads and they all seem fine. There are two rads that dont heat up fully and one that doesnt heat up at all. When i turn off some of the rads that work in the house these ones heat up fully. As soon as i turn them all back on i have the same two that dont heat fully and one goes fully cold.

As far as i know its a sealed system, and im thinking its maybe a pressure issue. There seems to be a pressure gauge on a pipe over where the boiler is situated and that is reading 0.7 or 0.8ish of a bar. There then seems to be a knob similar to what you would find on the side of a rad beside the gauge. I reckon turning this will increase the pressure.

Im just looking for a second opinion before i do this and i reckon you lads wouldnt steer me wrong;)

dodzy

TankGuy wrote: »

Hi Folks,
I am having an issue with some of my rads. I have Gas central heating. My Boiler is Glow Worm Economy Plus E40 and working fine.

I have bled the rads and they all seem fine. There are two rads that dont heat up fully and one that doesnt heat up at all. When i turn off some of the rads that work in the house these ones heat up fully. As soon as i turn them all back on i have the same two that dont heat fully and one goes fully cold.

As far as i know its a sealed system, and im thinking its maybe a pressure issue. There seems to be a pressure gauge on a pipe over where the boiler is situated and that is reading 0.7 or 0.8ish of a bar. There then seems to be a knob similar to what you would find on the side of a rad beside the gauge. I reckon turning this will increase the pressure.

Im just looking for a second opinion before i do this and i reckon you lads wouldnt steer me wrong;)

Nah, that knob you are referring to is a pressure release valve I would guess. THe system top up ( or filling loop ) is usually in the hotpress and is usually a braided flexi hose with a small valve for filling the system in the event of a pressure fall off. You can confirm if the system is sealed by looking in your attic for a 2nd tank ( a small one ). If you have, then the system is open. If sealed, there will be an expansion vessel ( a red metal vessel - possibly in the hotpress or near the boiler.

Iveseen the filling loops in strange places though. Not saying the plumbers put them there to hide them though;)

Have you added rads to the system recently? System might need balancing.

I'm sure the pros will be along shortly to put you right.

TankGuy

Thanks for that. I'm actually 87% sure there is a smaller tank on top of my big tank in the attic so it might be an open system.
The reason i thouhgt it closed was just a comment from a friend when i was looking at the house to buy.

Oh and i have not added new rads. Was looking into that as i thought the rads that were colder needed replacing until i realised they work fine when the water gets to them

dodzy

TankGuy wrote: »

Thanks for that. I'm actually 87% sure there is a smaller tank on top of my big tank in the attic so it might be an open system.
The reason i thouhgt it closed was just a comment from a friend when i was looking at the house to buy.

87% :D

cloptrop

was this always the case i think thats a very small boiler , how big is the house ? is there a little dial on the front bottom of the boiler that turns from 1-3 or 1-5 ? try turning it up
i think them boilers are only 8 and a half to 10 kw
i think average house needs 15-18 kw boiler , im not 100 per cent though
maybe 87 per cent

TankGuy

cloptrop wrote: »

maybe 87 per cent

There is a dial on the front for upping the temprature but that only seems to make the rads that are on get hotter rather than making the others warm.

I will check the size of the boiler when i get home and post it.

The house is a three bedroom. 7 rads in total. The rads that dont heat are the furtest ones away from the boiler.

Just checked the net and it seems to be 11Kw at max and 9Kw at min

dodzy

TankGuy wrote: »

..The rads that dont heat are the furtest ones away from the boiler.

I never aske the question; cloptrop did. Was this always the case or is a recent problem ? ( end of line rads not heating ...... could very well be a balancing problem )

TankGuy

dodzy wrote: »

I never aske the question; cloptrop did. Was this always the case or is a recent problem ? ( end of line rads not heating ...... could very well be a balancing problem )

This has always been the way since i bought the house two years ago.

The two that are not fully warm were better, they seem to be getting colder.

cloptrop

could very well just be a balancing problem , that just seems a smaller boiler than usual , try turning down the balancing valve , its a gate valve in the hotpress , it will be on a pipe that feeds into the cylinder about 1 third up from the bass, it will have another pipe feeding in the exact same way about a foot higher ,
close this valve all the way then open it two full turns ,
worth a try

Pauley2

...Yep, as it's been that way for a while and the problem is across two rads that come back to life when the others are turned off the most likely culprit (and easiest to fix) would seem to be balancing...

...and FYI just because you see a small feed tank in the attic doesn't mean it's an open system - it could be a retrofit like mine (see my post today re heating system not filling up) and that tank could be a remnant from the past - even if there's water in it. Or the conversion plumber may simply have left the olf tank in place, unused. In my case the old tank is still in use as the feed for the system - which I'm not sure is correct as I'd imagine the pressure would may not be high enough to push past the check valve (Hmm maybe I've just answered my auto-fill problem!)