Radiator fault

[phil]

Hi

I have two radiators in my house that stop heating up after the first few uses of the winter, which has happened for the last couple of years.

We started using our central heating again about a month ago after not using for approx 4 months during the summer. All radiatiors were perfect on the first few uses but now our hall and dining room radiator have no heat at all.

They are not directly connected and the pipe to the hall radiator is hot until half way down when it turns cold.

I`ve tried bleeding them but it makes no difference.

Every other radiator in the house is working perfectly and all are running from a Ferroli combi-boiler which is about 4 years old.

Many thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Regards

Phil

[Handy]

I don't know about pressurised systems, so this might not all apply. Sludge in the rads or pipes might cause these problems but assuming the system was re-filled and inhibitor added 4 years ago then this seems unlikely. Have any of the lock shield valves been turned off or on; this might unbalance the whole system. Have the 2 non-working rads got TRVs? Sometimes the pins stick. You could try turning all the rad control valves off, then turn the control valve on for one of the non-working rads, then the other, to see if they both get hot on their own. This might clear trapped air and confirm they are not blocked. If the 2 troublesome rads get hot on their own, turn the rest of the control valves on and see if all the rads get hot. If you still have problems it might be worth getting an infrared thermometer (you can get one for about 20GBP) and balancing the rads. That would confirm or exclude that as the problem.

[phil]

Many thanks for that. I will try all you mentioned and hopefully get to the rrot of the problems.

Thanks again.

Regards

Phil