Towel Rail Hell

[paul]

I have a 2 year old towel rail fitted by a plumber. It worked really well up until this autumn.

Although one of the pipes below the rail gets hot, the rail itself never does despite the fact that both valves are fully open. I've tried bleeding it (gets warm for half an hour), I've tried disconnecting and re-filling it (same thing). Oddly both pipes seem to be pumping water into the system rather than one pumping and one draining away.

Short of threatening it with violence or reading it poetry I'm out of ideas.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

(it seems to work in the summer as well as the winter...so I'm guessing its not connected directly to the central heating system)

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

If you hadn't said this I'd have thought the plumber had connected it to the domestic hot water supply!

I think you'd best have it taken off and flushed through in case there's something blocking it.

Si

[mcbrien410]

(it seems to work in the summer as well as the winter...so I'm guessing

its not connected directly to the central heating system)

In the summer it would seem to be getting hot due to the immersion heater in the HW cylinder.

Chris.

[David Hansen]

On 30 Jan 2006 14:36:09 -0800 someone who may be "paul" wrote this:-

How did the plumber connect it up? If you follow the pipes, where do they go to? Do you find a pump?

You need to tell us what sort of heating and hot water system(s) you have.

Guessing that you have a hot water cylinder, if you heat water in the summer using a gas boiler then perhaps the towel rail is connected to the pipes that take boiler water to the hot water cylinder. It could also be that the towel rail uses gravity circulation from the hot water side of the cylinder.

Then people can start trying to help.

[paul]

Ok.... Sorry for the lack of detail...no pump, heating is off a potterton gas boiler, although there is also an electric immersion heater...

[David Hansen]

On 31 Jan 2006 08:36:00 -0800 someone who may be "paul" wrote this:-

Sounds unlikely. If you cannot see a separate pump then it is probably built into the boiler.

How old is it, roughly?

So, there is a hot water cylinder. When you follow the pipes from the towel rail where does each one go? Do they go to the hot water pipes, or the ones from the boiler?