two radiators wont heat

Faolchu

Guys i have a strange one.

Live in a 2 bed apartment and when i turn teh heatin on 4 of 6 radiators heat up. I've tried to bleed teh radiators but this hasnt helped. maybe its my understanding of belelding thats wrong. The way i understand it you open the valve until water comes out then adjust the pressure in the boiler in the hot press theres a flexible hose attached to 2 pipes, one side has a tap thats either open or closed i put it to open (in direction of pipes) to increase pressure and do it again at the next radiator and so on. Well i tried that yesterday, each time the max i could get the pressure back up to was 1.5 (ive been told between 1.5 and 2 is the range i want to have it in)

the two rads that donw work are in the living room and kitchen. now heres the strange bit, if i touch the pipe comin in to the rad in the living room its warm (not scalding like the feel of the working rads) so i figured there might be an issue with something blocking the nonworking rads so for the sake of it i turned off all the 4 working rads and then the living room rad started heating up just fine. so i turned all the rads back on and tried to bleed the living room one again only this time i cant get the pressure above 1.25.

anyone any thoughts? I've spent the weekend freezing my nads off trying to get this thing working

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

Guys i have a strange one.

Live in a 2 bed apartment and when i turn teh heatin on 4 of 6 radiators heat up. I've tried to bleed teh radiators but this hasnt helped. maybe its my understanding of belelding thats wrong. The way i understand it you open the valve until water comes out then adjust the pressure in the boiler in the hot press theres a flexible hose attached to 2 pipes, one side has a tap thats either open or closed i put it to open (in direction of pipes) to increase pressure and do it again at the next radiator and so on. Well i tried that yesterday, each time the max i could get the pressure back up to was 1.5 (ive been told between 1.5 and 2 is the range i want to have it in)

the two rads that donw work are in the living room and kitchen. now heres the strange bit, if i touch the pipe comin in to the rad in the living room its warm (not scalding like the feel of the working rads) so i figured there might be an issue with something blocking the nonworking rads so for the sake of it i turned off all the 4 working rads and then the living room rad started heating up just fine. so i turned all the rads back on and tried to bleed the living room one again only this time i cant get the pressure above 1.25.

anyone any thoughts? I've spent the weekend freezing my nads off trying to get this thing working

Turn off all other rads and the coil ( two pipe coming out of the side of your dhw cyl one directly above the other, one of these pipes, preferably the bottom one, should have a red handled gate valve ), wait for rads to heat and then open everything back up.

If they're not thermostatic rad valve only open the a couple of turns, also only open the coil a couple of turns.

This is known as balancing you system

Faolchu

cikearney wrote: »

Turn off all other rads and the coil ( two pipe coming out of the side of your dhw cyl one directly above the other, one of these pipes, preferably the bottom one, should have a red handled gate valve ), wait for rads to heat and then open everything back up.

If they're not thermostatic rad valve only open the a couple of turns, also only open the coil a couple of turns.

This is known as balancing you system

whats a dhw cyl? I haven't the first clue about this stuff.

gaelicyoda

Faolchu wrote: »

whats a dhw cyl?

Domestic Hot Water Cylinder.... the "tank" in your hot press

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

whats a dhw cyl? I haven't the first clue about this stuff.

Sorry for my ignorance, you live in an apartment so it's more than likely a combi cylinder, big tall blue/ green water storage tank/ heater. If so the bottom half is you domestic hot water cylinder.

If you don't have one of these you'll have either a blue/ green waist high cylinder, locate pipes referring to my last post, or a big white/ grey chest height cylinder in this case the pipe work will be more than likely labeled on the cylinder itself as primary flow/ return or simply flow/ return, and once again refer to last post. Good luck!

I'd you get stuck just post a pic of your hot press/ pipework

Faolchu

cheers

I'll get some pics tonight and stick them up when i get home. the strange thing is its only strated to act this way over teh last few weeks. maybe since teh start of december and to my knowlegde nothing has changed in teh system.

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

cheers

I'll get some pics tonight and stick them up when i get home. the strange thing is its only strated to act this way over teh last few weeks. maybe since teh start of december and to my knowlegde nothing has changed in teh system.

Water will always take the path if least resistance.

It has probable drawn in air from somewhere or even been dislodged from somewhere else and is now prevention ting these rads from heating.

Now you air trying to move the air, once again, hopefully into the rad or to even pass by or thoroughly an auto air vent in either your hot press or the boiler itself.

Faolchu

ok heres how the hotpress looks.

1 cylinder itself http://i.imgur.com/OLiJMn8.jpg?1

2 & 3 two valves at the bottom of cylinder, these neverhad any actual taps on them, they have always been as seen with no wheels onthem. http://i.imgur.com/y9eOMUY.jpg & http://i.imgur.com/gCV9zie.jpg

4 this is at the top of the pipe where the previous two valvesare. Last night the setting was to between 50 and 60 if I remember right. I’venever touched this. http://i.imgur.com/xuHtCSN.jpg

5 this again is above this, its actually above head height. Inpic 4 you can see a pipe feeding up this box comes off that pipe near the ceiling.About 6 months ago this was knocked loose and water started to leak. I tooksome of the white tape used to put on joins, think its called PTE tape and justtightened up the nuts that are above and below it that had come loose. But thatwas 6 months ago and the heating was working fine after it and I had all theradiators working. http://i.imgur.com/6gSq9ww.jpg

6 I use this to increase the pressure in the boiler, to myunderstanding its now in the “off position” but currently if I turn it the pressurein the boiler doesn’t increase, its stays at about 1.25. http://imgur.com/2dOQcJu

7 these are above the cylinder itself (you can see them justabove the shelf in pic1) and if I trace the pipe down it goes behind the cylinderbut I cant be sure if they go into it, I think they may be just a feed for the watertank in the attic to my taps. http://i.imgur.com/hYt4Jev.jpg

8 is obviously the front of the boiler showing the pressure,not the clearest photo but that’s the pressure last night when I came in, theheating had been off all day. If I open the valve in picture 6 this doesn’t seemto increase at all. But I know it should be around 1.5 to 2 bar http://i.imgur.com/yqrUcTP.jpg

9 no idea what these are for, if I remember right the dialto the right is for turning the ignition on or something like that, no ideawhat the other one is for. http://i.imgur.com/TkdU2CJ.jpg

10 pretty sure this is the Gas cut off lever. http://i.imgur.com/pQmtdnA.jpg

11 just saw this writing last night on the wall it says “heatingvalves Open 4 turns each anticlockwise” that’s on the wall to the left of the valvesin pics 2-4. http://i.imgur.com/RxNUWgK.jpg

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

ok heres how the hotpress looks.

1 cylinder itself http://i.imgur.com/OLiJMn8.jpg?1

2 & 3 two valves at the bottom of cylinder, these neverhad any actual taps on them, they have always been as seen with no wheels onthem. http://i.imgur.com/y9eOMUY.jpg & http://i.imgur.com/gCV9zie.jpg

4 this is at the top of the pipe where the previous two valvesare. Last night the setting was to between 50 and 60 if I remember right. I’venever touched this. http://i.imgur.com/xuHtCSN.jpg

5 this again is above this, its actually above head height. Inpic 4 you can see a pipe feeding up this box comes off that pipe near the ceiling.About 6 months ago this was knocked loose and water started to leak. I tooksome of the white tape used to put on joins, think its called PTE tape and justtightened up the nuts that are above and below it that had come loose. But thatwas 6 months ago and the heating was working fine after it and I had all theradiators working. http://i.imgur.com/6gSq9ww.jpg

6 I use this to increase the pressure in the boiler, to myunderstanding its now in the “off position” but currently if I turn it the pressurein the boiler doesn’t increase, its stays at about 1.25. http://imgur.com/2dOQcJu

7 these are above the cylinder itself (you can see them justabove the shelf in pic1) and if I trace the pipe down it goes behind the cylinderbut I cant be sure if they go into it, I think they may be just a feed for the watertank in the attic to my taps. http://i.imgur.com/hYt4Jev.jpg

8 is obviously the front of the boiler showing the pressure,not the clearest photo but that’s the pressure last night when I came in, theheating had been off all day. If I open the valve in picture 6 this doesn’t seemto increase at all. But I know it should be around 1.5 to 2 bar http://i.imgur.com/yqrUcTP.jpg

9 no idea what these are for, if I remember right the dialto the right is for turning the ignition on or something like that, no ideawhat the other one is for. http://i.imgur.com/TkdU2CJ.jpg

10 pretty sure this is the Gas cut off lever. http://i.imgur.com/pQmtdnA.jpg

11 just saw this writing last night on the wall it says “heatingvalves Open 4 turns each anticlockwise” that’s on the wall to the left of the valvesin pics 2-4. http://i.imgur.com/RxNUWgK.jpg

Pic two indicates your throttling valve and bypass valve, as they have no head you prob won't be able to isolate the

Turn down the white headed thermostatic control valve and refer to past post and see how you get on

Take note of what number it's is at befor you close it and when rads are working open it back up

Leave everything off bar the two rads for about 15/20 minutes to ensure they are circulating correctly. Pipes on both sides of rad should be hot

Faolchu

cikearney wrote: »

Turn down the white headed thermostatic control valve and refer to past post and see how you get on

thats this one right http://i.imgur.com/xuHtCSN.jpg

cikearney wrote: »

Leave everything off bar the two rads for about 15/20 minutes to ensure they are circulating correctly. Pipes on both sides of rad should be hot

so I take note of the setting on this white valve (its between 50 & 60 off the top of my head now) then on the bottom of each rad theres a white knob some like this others like this only newer. so turn these all off these off except the non working ones for 20 minutes or so and if the two rads not working heat up ok. if they do then turn back on the other rads and turn that white valve back to what was at.

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

thats this one right http://i.imgur.com/xuHtCSN.jpg




so I take note of the setting on this white valve (its between 50 & 60 off the top of my head now) then on the bottom of each rad theres a white knob some like this others like this only newer. so turn these all off these off except the non working ones for 20 minutes or so and if the two rads not working heat up ok. if they do then turn back on the other rads and turn that white valve back to what was at.

Bingo

Faolchu

ok cheers I'll give that a try. appreciate your help

Faolchu

Faolchu wrote: »

ok cheers I'll give that a try. appreciate your help

Tried that. On rad came up straight away it was like a furnace. The other got Luke warm and that wa after an hour of the heating being on.

Dtp79

Faolchu wrote: »

Tried that. On rad came up straight away it was like a furnace. The other got Luke warm and that wa after an hour of the heating being on.

When the first one came on like a furnace as you say, turn it off after 5 mins and just leave the warm one on till it heats. When hot then just turn everything back on and balance system

Faolchu

Dtp79 wrote: »

When the first one came on like a furnace as you say, turn it off after 5 mins and just leave the warm one on till it heats. When hot then just turn everything back on and balance system

Ok turned off all rads except 2 turned that white valve to 0 and switched on heat. Kitchens rad cam on straight away, left if for 5 mins then closed the valve at the bottom o the rad to switch that one off. Immediately heard water rushing into living room one(one that still wasn't working) that started to heat straight away.

So what now just turn all the rads on And open that valve at the boiler back up to the number it was at?

Should I open the valves on the rads all the way open of just somebody the way open?

Chao

Open the valve fully on the one that wasn't working, then the next one that wasn't heating fully open it 3/4 to half way and then open the rest half way and just figure out what way they should be to have them all hot.

Like if the first one's go cold again, close the ones that were working originally a bit till you get the right balance.

Dtp79

Faolchu wrote: »

Ok turned off all rads except 2 turned that white valve to 0 and switched on heat. Kitchens rad cam on straight away, left if for 5 mins then closed the valve at the bottom o the rad to switch that one off. Immediately heard water rushing into living room one(one that still wasn't working) that started to heat straight away.

So what now just turn all the rads on And open that valve at the boiler back up to the number it was at?

Should I open the valves on the rads all the way open of just somebody the way open?

Open the ones that were originally heating about one full turn on the return side if possible. You'll know if its the return cause it'll be the slightly cooler of the two valves. Open the flow side fully and the red wheel at the cyclinder should be opened about 1 1/2 turns. See how everything goes

Faolchu

Chao wrote: »

Open the valve fully on the one that wasn't working, then the next one that wasn't heating fully open it 3/4 to half way and then open the rest half way and just figure out what way they should be to have them all hot.

Like if the first one's go cold again, close the ones that were working originally a bit till you get the right balance.

Ah ok got it balance the flow of water through it.

Right I've opened the likes of the kitchen hall and bathroom partly and the likes of the bedrooms and living room up more. Shofar so good. I'll leave it like that for the next hour or so

Faolchu

Faolchu wrote: »

Ah ok got it balance the flow of water through it.

Right I've opened the likes of the kitchen hall and bathroom partly and the likes of the bedrooms and living room up more. Shofar so good. I'll leave it like that for the next hour or so

Looks sorted all rads are hot now and pressure is back up. I guess tomorrow night will be the test to see if they all come back on. Cheers lads

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

Ah ok got it balance the flow of water through it.

Right I've opened the likes of the kitchen hall and bathroom partly and the likes of the bedrooms and living room up more. Shofar so good. I'll leave it like that for the next hour or so

It's a process of elimination

By eliminating that rads that do heat, you're for the rads the don't heat to head

Once up and running turn everything back on referring to first post

Faolchu

lads its sorted thanks for all the assistance you've probably saved me a small fortune in call out fees

cikearney

Faolchu wrote: »

lads its sorted thanks for all the assistance you've probably saved me a small fortune in call out fees

Well done!