Suddenly, some Rads dont Work

marcus2000

I have gas central heating in my new house that has been running perfectly for a few months. Then two days ago, I noticed that out of about 12 radiators, five have suddenly stopped coming on. They are located at different points in the house (and on different floors)

I tried bleeding them, but there didn't seem to be an air clot. Everything else seems to be fine. Is there something obvious that I may have done or could do , before I call a plumber out?? I did originally test them all and they worked, but I'm only noticing 5 are not working as the living room rad has stopped working!!( I'm guessing they all stopped at the same time) Any ideas?

Billy Bunting

Do they have thermostatic valves ?

jane82

Is the pump still working?

marcus2000

Billy Bunting wrote: »

Do they have thermostatic valves ?

Nope. Just the old fashioned knob to turn off/on. There are thermostats on the wall but i don't even believe they are working. I attempted to switch off the heating by turning them to 0 (a test), but it had no effect on the rads that day??

marcus2000

jane82 wrote: »

Is the pump still working?

Im not sure what the pump is? (Sorry. Not very techie when it comes to how my house is heated!!) There are radiators working on the top floor and the gas burner is in my garage in the basment, so I assume there must be some sort of pump working? The hot water seems ok in the showers....

Billy Bunting

Try turning off all those that work and leave on those that dont, it could be a balancing issue, have you touched valves in the hot press ?

marcus2000

I did a bit of youtube research and it also said to try switching off the working rads and turning on the broken ones...I left it for an hour, but no change. (was that enough time to leave it???) ....I haven't touched anything in the hot press that I know of.

Billy Bunting

An hrs plenty.

You need to remove the plastic cover from the valve you dont turn, with plyers turn the spindle a quarter turn anti clockwise, this will open that valve slightly and hopfully work, then try same on others.

marcus2000

Cool. Ill give that a go this evening!! Is that something that could work for radiators that were working then stopped working? I did see a few clips on how to that on youtube too, but assumed it was like an initial setup thing??

il check anyway. just wanted to cover the basics myself before calling the plumber!!!

Billy Bunting

As its a new house it could require balancing as rads may not have been balanced by plumber or could have been removed by painter.

jane82

If your upstairs rads work and downstairs dont and this happened suddenly with no interference Id nearly gaurantee its either a broken zone valve or circulating pump.
Either wont cost more than a couple of hundred or there abouts.
I would leave it to professionals though.

Billy Bunting

jane82 wrote: »

If your upstairs rads work and downstairs dont and this happened suddenly with no interference Id nearly gaurantee its either a broken zone valve or circulating pump.
Either wont cost more than a couple of hundred or there abouts.
I would leave it to professionals though.

They are located at different points in the house (and on different floors)

It could of course be both zone valves and gravity heating some rads but as we are looking at a modern gas boiler i suspect it would have let you know that.

plumbingbuddy

To start identify which rads are working, are they all on one floor or on different floors.
If any rads are working then the chances are it's not the pump.
Balancing is a major possibility but there are a few other valves in the hot press to check also.
Have you an auto bypass or manual bypass.
Sounds complicated but it'd not with a bit of guidance you should be fit to sort yourself.

jane82

plumbingbuddy wrote: »

To start identify which rads are working, are they all on one floor or on different floors.
If any rads are working then the chances are it's not the pump.
Balancing is a major possibility but there are a few other valves in the hot press to check also.
Have you an auto bypass or manual bypass.
Sounds complicated but it'd not with a bit of guidance you should be fit to sort yourself.

The rads dont unbalance themselves do they?
They were working.
One day they werent. Upstairs rads are all working.
Gravity.

Billy Bunting

plumbingbuddy wrote: »

To start identify which rads are working, are they all on one floor or on different floors.
If any rads are working then the chances are it's not the pump.
Balancing is a major possibility but there are a few other valves in the hot press to check also.
Have you an auto bypass or manual bypass.
Sounds complicated but it'd not with a bit of guidance you should be fit to sort yourself.

Do you bother reading the posts before posting ??? if you had you would have noticed that your treading on old ground, have a read will ya! :rolleyes:

Billy Bunting

jane82 wrote: »

The rads dont unbalance themselves do they?
They were working.
One day they werent. Upstairs rads are all working.
Gravity.

Other things can cause them to be out of balance :rolleyes:

The OP stated............

They are located at different points in the house (and on different floors)

plumbingbuddy

Rads don't unbalance them selves but with a gravity fed system the pressure tends to be lower than a sealed system so it can take very little to knock the system out of balance.
Also some factors are the age of the system the age and the if the pump is working to full capacity

Wearb

plumbingbuddy wrote: »

Rads don't unbalance them selves but with a gravity fed system the pressure tends to be lower than a sealed system so it can take very little to knock the system out of balance.
Also some factors are the age of the system the age and the if the pump is working to full capacity

If one clogs up or airlocks, it can cause the system to become unbalanced. Perhaps you could call that "unbalancing themselves"

jane82

plumbingbuddy wrote: »

To start identify which rads are working, are they all on one floor or on different floors.
If any rads are working then the chances are it's not the pump.
Balancing is a major possibility but there are a few other valves in the hot press to check also.
Have you an auto bypass or manual bypass.
Sounds complicated but it'd not with a bit of guidance you should be fit to sort yourself.

The rads dont unbalance themselves do they?
They were working.
One day they werent. Upstairs rads are all working.
Gravity.

Billy Bunting

jane82 wrote: »

The rads dont unbalance themselves do they?
.

You are obviously not reading whats in front of you, if you find yourself asking these sort of questions do really feel you should be attempting to answering the OP.

plumbingbuddy

Jane82 if your having issues feel free to contact me and might just be fit to help you.

jane82

marcus2000 wrote: »

Im not sure what the pump is? (Sorry. Not very techie when it comes to how my house is heated!!) There are radiators working on the top floor and the gas burner is in my garage in the basment, so I assume there must be some sort of pump working? The hot water seems ok in the showers....

Oh its cause I have a girl sounding name. Im a qualified plumber. Top floor rads working see above. Anyway carry on with the balancing.

Billy Bunting

jane82 wrote: »

Oh its cause I have a girl sounding name. Im a qualified plumber. Top floor rads working see above. Anyway carry on with the balancing.

Now your being very selective, some top floor rads are working, as are some on the botton floor, you being a girlie or not is nothing to do with it, if your having to ask questions like......

The rads dont unbalance themselves do they?

you need to look back at your books.
And just because it was suggested that it could be a balancing issue it doesnt have to be so, but a procedure needs to be followed to determine just what is what rather than just direct the OP to the nearest plumber to shed out a couple of hundred on motorised valves and a pump.

DGOBS

Plumbingbuddy:
Slow down on the self promotion please, this is not the place to advertise yourself, give advise, give recommendations.

Jane82 if your having issues feel free to contact me and might just be fit to help you.

marcus2000

Turns out there was a thermostat on the wall in one of the spare rooms that controls 5 random radiators in different rooms. Never even noticed it. Not sure of the logic behind it, but it did the trick. thanks for all the help!!!!