ONLY ONE RADIATOR NOT WORKING - WHY?!?!

ALL MY GAS CENTRAL HEATING RADIATORS ARE WORKING EXCEPT FOR ONE OF THE TWO IN THE LOUNGE. ANY IDEAS WHAT COULD BE WRONG

Isolated at rad valves?

Fitted with thermostatic valve which is stuck shut?

Air in rad?

Blockage?

Never been piped in?

Has it ever worked?

Has it been recently worked on or removed for decorating, perhaps?

THE RADIATOR VALVE IS OPEN, THERE IS NO AIR IN IT AS I BLED IT, NO THERMOSTAT AND IT WORKED UNTIL ABOUT A MONTH AGO. THE WHOLE SYSTEM WAS FLUSHED OUT AND AN INHIBITER PUT IN ABOUT 18 MONTH AGO AND MAYBE IT HASN'T BEEN ON FULL HEAT SINCE THEN. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

uselessFCUK said:

Isolated at rad valves?

Fitted with thermostatic valve which is stuck shut?

Air in rad?

Blockage?

Never been piped in?

Has it ever worked?

Has it been recently worked on or removed for decorating, perhaps?

Click to expand...

Try closing off all the other rads leaving this one open... see if anything improves.

It may be worth noting on each valve you close... how many turns/half turns it takes to close in case of balancing.

Other than that you may have to remove ploblem rad for a flush out.
There may even be a blockage in the flow/return pipes to this rad which you make check when the rad is off.

Please note - some find it's a little awkward to read in CAPS and some assume it to be a shouting tone of voice - I'm sure you may know this but didn't realised til you had submitted your reply... it happens.

Regards - Useless

I've just turned all the radiators off but that one so I'll let you know tomorrow if that works but as you say it's probably blocked so then I'll tackle that problem. Thanks for the advice on capitals, I didn't realise!
Thanks for your ideas too on what it may be.

Regards
sjbis11

A friend had a similar problem last week. One large radiator stone cold, one medium size warmish and another small one hot.
The conclusion was that the cold radiator being large and being furthest away from the pump offered the most resistance so decided to check the balancing on remaining radiators. Closing some of the lockshield valves a little brought some improvement to the cold radiator, but still not as hot as the small radiator.
Further investigation revealed a by pass pipe with valve just after the pump. This valve was fully open and provided an easy route for the water. The valve was fully closed, then opened about 1/3. This still left a escape way, but caused resistance so it was now easier for water to go through radiator. All radiators now hot and re balanced again.

Thanks for that advice, that's exactly what it was and all radiators are now working fine.