Radiators not working properly

pdunno

I have a bit of a problem with some of the adiators in my house. House is only about 6 months old and the problem I am having is that when I switch on the heating there are a couple of radiators which don't come on. This was never a problem before the summer, all the rads worked fine. I hadn't turned the heating on for the last few months as it was warm enough really. Anway I find that if I fiddle with the setting on the side of the rad eventually they will work. Anbybody have any idea why this might be or what I need to do to remedy this?

denismac

Have you tried bleeding air from the rads? Mine will require me to do this after a period of non-usage.

Firewalkwithme

Venting / bleeding the rads is the most likely solution but if that fails then it could be that the small water tank in your attic is empty. This happened in my house last year, all the rads downstairs worked fine but upstairs some of them didn't work at all or only half way up from the bottom of the rad. I tried venting the rads but no air was coming out - or water, which meant that the tank was empty. What happens usually is that the ballcock in the tank can get stuck in the closed position because it is not used as often as you main water tank. Just push the ballcock down and the water should start flowing again, you might need to manipulate it a little before it loosens up properly. If no water comes out, there's probably a valve turned off somewhere. You will probably need to vent the rads after refilling the tank - make sure that the tank can refill itself after you do that. If it doesn't then push the ballcock down until the tank fills again (a full tank should last quite a while) or else buy a new ballcock assembly.

Enii

The exact same thisn happened my sister and she bled them and they are fine now.....

pdunno

ok, I wil try bleeding them and see if that works. If it doesn't I will take a look at the ballcock/small tank. Thanks

rooferPete

Hi,

The full tank is not a great idea long term as it may cause "tipping" in the system, that is where you have water dripping (sometimes flowing) from the expansion pipe when the pump is on and the water is not yet fully heated.

Have the ballvalve changed if needed, it can work out cheaper in the long term.

.

Firewalkwithme

rooferPete wrote:

Hi,

The full tank is not a great idea long term as it may cause "tipping" in the system, that is where you have water dripping (sometimes flowing) from the expansion pipe when the pump is on and the water is not yet fully heated.

Have the ballvalve changed if needed, it can work out cheaper in the long term.

.

Sorry pete but I didn't mean that he should put that much water in the tank, just fill it up to whatever level the ballcock would normally allow.

karltimber

another reason maybe that your system needs to be tuned.

Turn on your heat and turn off all rads downstairs.
When the rads upstairs get hot - start to slowly tweek the ones downstairs.
It just means that an even distribution of equally hot water is getting to both up and downstarirs rads.

I need to do this - as two rads upstairs have a mind of their own.!!!

Just another idea.