Replacing a radiator.

Feb 13, 2005 1 Replies

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Crewood 21 years ago

Hello All,

I find I have to remove a large living room radiator to get rid of the sludge build up that's in there, is it worth considering replacing the radiator with a more modern one at the same time?

The radiator measures 1765mm long, has two panels that are seperated by nothing but fresh air and was installed around 1970.

I look at old threads about replacing radiators but they all seem to be from the early 2000s and I was thinking maybe the technology in radiators has moved on since then.

REgards.

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Set Square 21 years ago

Most radiators now have fins - on the back of single panel rads, and between the panels for doubles. Doubles may have one or two rows of fins. Fins increase the surface area for convection - and thus increase the heat output for a given size of radiator.

If your current radiator has sufficient heat output, there's no real point in replacing it with a one having a greater output - the room will get too hot at the expense of other rooms. You could possibly regain some wall space by using a smaller finned rad with the same output as the current one. Or if the present one isn't sufficient, a finned one may be good idea - providing the boiler, pump and pipework can keep up.

You really need to work out the heat losses for the room and go for a radiator with an appropriate output to match.

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