Balancing radiators??

cocobubbles

Hi all i need some help please. We had a new gas boiler fitted and all the rads were working perfectly. However one by one the radiators are no longer heating and all the heat is going to only 3 radiators in the house. The other rads are stone cold and having googled it, all the rads may need to be balanced, does this sound right? and how do i do this? thanks!!

K.Flyer

If the boiler has just been fitted, why have you not called the installer back. Might just be several airlocks still trapped in the system.

slystallone

Ha anyone come across this type of valve when balancing rads? I can't get any movement out of it at all with the spanner.

Wearb

Balance it from the other side. You don't want to create a problem this time of year.

slystallone

So how should I do this? I have it open up to the max the other side as its further from the boiler. If I close the ones upstairs will it send heat to that one?

Wearb

Use it the same way that you had intended to use the frozen one.

youtheman

All your radiators are 'in parallel'. So, in theory, you should have the same flow through each. But water will try find the 'path of least resistance', i.e. it will have a tendency to go to the nearest radiator, conversely it will be less inclined to go through the farthest radiator. So you 'force' it to go through the farther radiators by putting a restriction on the nearer radiators (i.e. by closing in the balancing valve on that radiator).

Assuming you don't have TRVs, if you remove the plastic head from both valves on a radiator you will find they are identical. Just one has a groove on it that allows you screw open or close the valve, the other one has no groove so just spins on the head of the valve. So one is for normal operation (on/off) and the other is for balancing.

So there is a bit of trial and error. With a spanner screw in the balancing valve on the radiators nearest the boiler. For example, screw in 2 full turns on the nearest, no turn on the farthest, and a bit between for those radiators between nearest and farthest.

Turn on your boiler and all radiators. If a radiators has zero heat then turn off all other radiators, that will prove if the radiator needs bleeding or not. If it heats up fully only when all radiators are off then you definitely know it is a balance issue.

The valve in the photo, it screws closed by turning clockwise. So put a spanner on it. If you can't turn it clockwise then it is most probably closed (unless it is stuck altogether). So try turning it anticlockwise to see if it will open.

If you can't turn it either way then you can 'loosen the packing' which is the seal around the spindle of the valve. Get a bigger spanner and loosen (a very small bit) the next big brass nut at the base of the spindle (the one where the spindle sticks through). This will loosen the packing of the valve slightly (this is what seals around the valve).. Don't loosen it too much as it will eventually start to leak if you loosen it too much. You're looking at something like 1/4 turn max. You can always loosen the packing, get the valve where you want it, then tighten it up again assuming you don't have to adjust it again.

Apologies for the long winded reply !. Good luck.