Why is my radiator cold?

Question

I just moved into a new house.
After a bit of fiddling about I have managed to get all radiatirs working except for two upstairs bedrooms.
I have bled them until water is coming out.
There is no heat in the pipes entering or leaving the radiators.
I have turned up my water pressure and my thermostat. Dont know what else to try

Thanks

Oh its a baxi back boiler by the way

Answer 1

It will be sludge in the system, sorry, but the last owners will have known this, British gas charge £650 to do this, antbody else about £200 quid cheaper. Company i work for are 350, you can try tapping the valves, if they are thermostatic, (have numbers on), the heads are removable, and the pin underneath needs tapping gently.

Answer 2

First of all forget the answer about the two valves, Go to the radiators that are working and turn them off, just one end will do, then turn the heating on ,making sure that the room thermostat, if you have one, is turned right up to maximum. If you do not have a room stat but have thermostatic valves on each radiator, make sure that, on the rads that don`t work, the valves at each end of each rad are fully open. You are now concentrating all the effort of the circulator (pump) on clearing any air in the system pipework into the two rads. You may hear a gurgling. The rads should soon get warm, if so, problem solved. If they still don`t get hot remove the plastic thermostatic head from the valve body ( some clamp on with a screw or allen key, and others screw on with a chrome ring, ) Once removed there should be revealed a small pin sticking out of the valve body. The thermostat pushes this pin in to close the valve and releases it to open the valve, so the pin should move in and out quite freely( but a fair bit of pressure is required to move it.) If it won`t go in, it is probably stuck in already so, if you carefully tap this pin into the valve squarely, like knocking a nail in, the pin, if stuck should pop out thereby allowing the heated water to flow into the rad. Good Luck

Answer 3

You may want to replace the valves up stairs on the radiators if the will not open. Do you know if they drained the radiator before doing all of that work? I recently had similar issue - but had to do some maintenance and drained the radiator. When I drained it -- it also pulled all of the water from the radiators. I had to refill to the correct psi run for a while to circulate water then starting at the top of the house bled the radiators. If you had this profressionaly done - I would call back the people who performed the work as a possiblility - but the new valves are much nicer easeier to use because they use a flat head screw driver to bleed and go in very easily. Just make sure you clean the opening well once you remove the old one with a steel brush and use plumbing tape on the threads...Novice job.

Answer 4

Hi, just a few questions :
Are the Rads situated the highest in the house?

Have you checked the valves at the other ends are open?

To your knowledge, have they ever worked?

To your knowledge, do you have a small cold water tank in the loft or at some other high point in the house? (this is known as a vented system).

It would be advisable to check this and make sure it has got water inside, (at least 3-4 inches).

Another thing to try is to put the heating system on and turn off all the other "working" radiators, this will usually clear out any trapped air which is in the pipework feeding those Rads.

Good Luck
Graybro

Answer 5

You have just moved into a new house so it wont be sludge, see if the thermostatic valve pins are stuck down, you remove the top and you'll see a pin sticking up if you can press it down you'll need something to press it with because there stiff and will hurt, if it does not go down tap on the top not to hard and it will pop up, other than that it's a blockage could be air, turn off all the other rads that may force water through the ones not working, good luck

Answer 6

Yes Geoff c is right, but the thermostatic radiator valve is probably stuck closed, take the valve head off as Geoff c said to reveal the steel pin, don't hit with a hammer as this can damage the valve, just push the pin in with a metal object, I use the side of a spanner. keep pushing the pin in 30 or 40 times (don't hit the pin , just push it until the pin moves easily).
Easy when you know how.

Its very common for the thermo rad to stick closed, when they have been closed off during the warmer months. Some valve heads like Dan-floss come off with a twisting of the small ring.

Im 100% sure this is the problem, Its my job.

Answer 7

You more than likely have a cut out valve installed in the line somewhere. Look for an access plate along the line. Whoever installed it probably put in a bypass valve so you didn't have to hear the upstairs until you wanted to. There should be 2 valves together somewhere, open one and close the other.

Answer 8

they probably just need bleeding if the house has been empty a while probably some air has gotten in to the radiators so i would say bleed them rub your hand up and down the radiators and see if half way down 1 of them is warm if so thats your problem they are probably the furthest 2 radiators from your boiler aswell ;)

What I have read from these "plubming and heating" people I think they are trying to con you out of money or something

Answer 9

Try bleeding the rads furthest from the boiler first

Answer 10

Make sure the valves are on at both ends