Heating flushed but rads still cold

[paulovey]

Hi,

I hope some one can help.

I have had 1 cold rad in the middle of 4 I have in my flat. The past month its never got warm, both pipes coming out the wall always remain cold.

So one the advice of the first plumber =A3117 bill, I got the same company in to powerflush the system, I saw a lot of very black water come out, it finally ran clean. This cost =A3346. So we are running at =A3450 at the moment. And still a cold rad.

They have mentioned new pipes, i have just spent the past 5 months decorating, I cant face having it all ripped down and the pipework replaced surley there must be another fix?

Thanks,

Paul

[Michael Shergold]

I hope some one can help.

I have had 1 cold rad in the middle of 4 I have in my flat. The past month its never got warm, both pipes coming out the wall always remain cold.

So one the advice of the first plumber £117 bill, I got the same company in to powerflush the system, I saw a lot of very black water come out, it finally ran clean. This cost £346. So we are running at £450 at the moment. And still a cold rad.

They have mentioned new pipes, i have just spent the past 5 months decorating, I cant face having it all ripped down and the pipework replaced surley there must be another fix? Thanks, Paul

I assume it's been bled! Did they flush each radiator in turn? If so they should have identified poor or no flow through that radiator. I think I would isolate it, drain it and take it off the wall and examine it in the garden with a hose .Something must be blocking the flow somewhere. Michael

[Brian G]

Should have had British Gas do it, ok, it would have cost around £400 (price is/was based on the number of rads in the property) but they would have left it working - and guaranteed it for the life of the system (re-flushes free if the problem recurs) for that price.

Brian G

[Guy King]

The message from "Brian G" contains these words:

It's that bit in the middle that gets me..."they would have left it working"...

This flies in the face of so much experience of so many people.

[paulovey]

Hi,

Yes, its been bled, no air in the system as far as I can see. Had two engineers in so far, one emptied the system and refilled, the other has power flushed it.

Its not blocking in the rad, as both the inlet and the outlet pipes are cold,. but they are sending a senior engineer in this weekend, to try a troubleshoot, so fingers crossed.

I will update when I know more.

Thanks for all the input.

Cheers,=20

Paul

[tiscali]

must be a faulty, jammed, or maladjusted valve.

get new cheap lockshield valves for about £3/pair from wickes, fit them and see if the rad works.

[TheScullster]

"paulovey" wrote

I have had 1 cold rad in the middle of 4 I have in my flat. The past month its never got warm, both pipes coming out the wall always remain cold.

Are you up to looking at this a bit yourself? If so, try closing both the handwheel (or thermo valve) fully. Slacken one end connection and drain the rad contents into a bowl (open bleed valve to assist with draining). Take radiator off carefully making sure no water/sludge can leak to carpet. With a bowl ready try cracking each rad valve in turn to see if you get water out. Likely you'll get water out of one valve but not the other. In this case you have either an airlock or a blockage. If you get water from both valves at reasonable flow, then the rad is suspect. Take it outside and blast cold water through it. If it's not too big, part fill it with water then invert it and right it a few times to flush out any crud. Watch all the time to see what comes out.

I recently had a similar experience and found that the blockage was at the valve itself. Solution was to open the valve far enough to feed a tie wrap down it. Broggled the tie wrap about and loads of gunk gushed out - got to watch the decor of course!

If all this fails, then unfortunately it is likely to need more radical attention, maybe to pressurise the pipe to the radiator in some way if the blockage is mid-pipe

HTH

Phil

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Has it ever worked properly to your certain knowledge?

[Ian Stirling]

If the rad is totally blocked, then of course both pipes will be cold. You have to have some flow, to get one warm.

[Paul R]

Two members of my family have had similar problems, with the 'professionals' saying various causes, all of which would require money being spent. In both cases, I simply balanced the system.

To check whether water is getting to this radiator, turn all the other radiators on the system off. If water can get through to the 'cold' radiator, this will show it. If it remains cold - then look at the other suggestions. If it gets appropriately 'hot', then rebalance the system.

Paul R

[paulovey]

HI Phil,

This is one area that I have no idea, the whole plumbing kinda scares me to be honest, I very worried about doing the wrong thing, and causing a big leak.

Anyway, I am getting the most senoir engineer to come and look at the system. I know there is water flowing to it, as I recently had the rad off the wall to do the painting. When I opened the valves the rad filled up.

So hopefully, come sunday I will heat.

I will update this post as time goes on.

Cheers all for your responses.

Paul

[Ed Sirett]

It's a pity that your (verbal) contract with the last lot of plumbers was for a power flush rather than to get the radiator working. The latter work may well have entailed a power flush but the work wuld only have been finished when the radiator was left in a working state.

It would have been most sensible to operate the power flushing machine in place of the non-working radiator this would have ensured that the pipes to that radiator were clear.

[Ed Sirett]

Good advice. It's always worth making sure that you have the correct diagnosis before starting out with an expensive course of treatment.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Still doesn't prove there's not an airlock in one of the pipes. It can fill from either direction, as it were.

[paulovey]

Hi all,

OK last update on this one. Finally its fixed.

It turned out to be a faulty Thermostatic Valve, even though the pin was up, the washer was stuck down. I did mention this to the first guy, but he didnt seem to think it was a problem.

Needless to say I havnt paid for the guy who came tonight (all from the same company). As it looks like the power flush was not needed. I was going on the advice of the first plumber to get this done, as I have no knowledge of plumbing. Im going to be talking to the manager tomorrow, to resolve this as =A3550 is a lot of money to spend on one rad.

Thanks ever so much for all the posts, I do appreciate the help you all posted.

Cheers,

Paul