One radiator not working

Rich1988

Rich1988

Rich1988

Soldato
Joined
8 Jan 2005
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Location
wiltshire
Morning all, I have done some research and tried all the normal fixes but I'm a bit stumped so I thought I would ask if you guys had any pearls of wisdom to offer.

I have a mavity fed central heating system, water cylinder on second floor and a tank in attic for hot water and smaller tank for the central heating. 4 bed detached house with 9 radiators total.

I bled the system before and after turning the heating on for the first time this Autumn and all the radiators work and get hot except for the downstairs hallway one. It is not a thermostatic one just valve type. So far I have done;

1) bleed system fully, clear water comes out of all radiators including the hallway one.
2) open and fully close the valves on the hallway radiator. These move freely.

The pipes to the radiator do not get warm so I am a bit confused as to what could be going on?
 
We used to have issues like this with out heating with the old boiler. Never found out why, but the cure for us was to turn off all other radiators and it forced the one not working into action. May be worth a try.
 
Is the CH pump on the lowest speed?

Have you run a system cleaning agent through the CH for 24 hours and then drained/refilled?

I had one which was slowly dying and couldn’t develop enough pressure to move water around the furthest radiator.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
Is the CH pump on the lowest speed?

Have you run a system cleaning agent through the CH for 24 hours and then drained/refilled?

I had one which was slowly dying and couldn’t develop enough pressure to move water around the furthest radiator.
Click to expand...

Interesting you should mention this, the pump was on auto before and didn't seem to generate enough pressure to get the system going so I turned it up to high. The pump gets too hot to touch but I figured this may be as a result of 65+ degree water going through it but it may well be the pump!

andy_mk3 said:
We used to have issues like this with out heating with the old boiler. Never found out why, but the cure for us was to turn off all other radiators and it forced the one not working into action. May be worth a try.
Click to expand...
I will try turning the other rads off as well to see if that will help
 
The last pump I had had both speed and constant pressure ranges available. Middle constant pressure worked best for our two pipe system with 9 radiators on 2 floors.

The metal parts of the pump should be a similar temperature to that of the feed side pipe. If that’s hot, the pump should be hot.

You should only hear the pump motor and water flowing noises. Any grumbling/grinding and the pump is FUBAR.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
The last pump I had had both speed and constant pressure ranges available. Middle constant pressure worked best for our two pipe system with 9 radiators on 2 floors.

The metal parts of the pump should be a similar temperature to that of the feed side pipe. If that’s hot, the pump should be hot.

You should only hear the pump motor and water flowing noises. Any grumbling/grinding and the pump is FUBAR.
Click to expand...


No noises out of the ordinary, just the normal gurgling. The airing cupboard it's in is on the landing so would notice anything out of the ordinary. I will try popping it to the middle and shutting other rads off and will report back
 
andy_mk3 said:
We used to have issues like this with out heating with the old boiler. Never found out why, but the cure for us was to turn off all other radiators and it forced the one not working into action. May be worth a try.
Click to expand...

I would also go with this one.

I had a hall rad which got air locked after draining down - I closed both valves then drained that rad -shut valves then opened them one tap at a time (open bleed valve)-if water flowed shut it up and try the other - most times it did work -not sure if I switched heat on to help it along.
 
andy_mk3 said:
We used to have issues like this with out heating with the old boiler. Never found out why, but the cure for us was to turn off all other radiators and it forced the one not working into action. May be worth a try.
Click to expand...
Try this.

If your pump is struggling then its a sign your system is at fault, not the pump. It shouldn't need max power to circulate a well functioning hot water system.
 
dLockers said:
Try this.

If your pump is struggling then its a sign your system is at fault, not the pump. It shouldn't need max power to circulate a well functioning hot water system.
Click to expand...

Really not sure what caused the issue with ours. The pump wasn't too old but the boiler was the original 70's back boiler, horrible thing. Replaced it with a Combi boiler and it's been fine since. Had system power flushed but the guy said it wasn't all that bad at all.

It may have been partly caused by the radiators not being balanced I think perhaps.
 
Turned the upstairs radiators off and the hallway radiator got hot. Turned pump down to half and opened the upstairs rads again and all is hunky dory! thanks for the advice.
 
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