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We are having a problem with the radiator in our dining room, which is completely cold, and I was hoping someone might be able to offer some suggestions. I've had a search on the forum and have done some tests as a result of what I've found, but with no luck.
I'll try and provide as much info as possible, so it's quite a long post.
The boiler we have is a Gloworm Swiftflow 75/80 combi boiler, which was fitted at some unknown time before we moved into the house two and a half years ago. When we moved in, all the radiators in the house worked (although with some imbalances in the heat, which we still have and that I'll be trying to sort out once the bigger problem is fixed).
The pipework in our house is a little odd as there are concrete floors downstairs, and the central heating was put in after the house was built, so I hope this description is clear enough:
We have a feed and return system. The feed flows from the boiler in the kitchen into the living room, where the first radiator is located. It then flows upstairs through the wall and splits into branches. The first branch serves the landing radiator and the bathroom radiator. The second branch serves the three bedrooms. The final branch heads back downstairs into the dining room, where it also splits off again to feed a radiator in the conservatory.
In the summer when the heating was entirely isolated, we did some work on the bedrooms. We relocated the radiator in the master bedroom onto another wall further away from the branch, extending the pipes to do so, and fitting a new smaller radiator. We also added some extra pipework to go through the wall into the smallest bedroom, where previously there had not been a radiator, and fitted a small radiator there.
To modify the pipework and fit the new radiators we drained the system; there is no radiator with a drain and so we the easiest drained the system from the bleed valve on the radiator in the dining room.
We did not alter the other two branches, or even see them - they are located under the floorboards on the landing.
When we pressured up the system, the new radiators worked correctly, but to be honest I do not recall whether the dining room radiator worked then or not. Given the problems we are now having, I suspect it did not. The other radiators all work fine.
When we came to use the heating this winter, the dining room radiator did not work at all. Both the feed and return pipes coming down from upstairs are completely cold. We've been using an electric panel heater in there until we found time today to try some testing.
All the radiators in the house have TRVs on them, apart from the bathroom radiator (which is actually a towel rail). The dining room TRV appears to work fine; the pin moves up and down easily when pressed. The other valve on the dining room radiator is fully open.
We have just drained the system again entirely from the dining room radiator. We turned the heating on briefly just to warm the other radiators in the house, and when draining the system, warm water flowed out through the dining room radiator, and the feed pipe to that radiator also got warm. However, when we pressured the system back up and turned the heating back on, that pipe remained cold, as did the radiator.
After that, we tried turning off all the other radiators in the house at their TRVs; but the pipes and radiator in the dining room remained completely cold.
We have never used the radiator in the conservatory, but the pipes for it branch off from those feeding the dining room radiator before they connect to the dining room radiator. We have opened both valves on the conservatory radiator as a test, but that, and the pipes to it, remain completely cold as well.
From cold, the radiators heat up pretty quickly as follows: living room, landing, second bedroom, bathroom, master bedroom, third bedroom. This seems to make sense as the upstairs pipes branch off before feeding any of the radiators, and on their respective branches, the second bedroom and landing radiators are the 'first' radiators - the radiators next in line heat up after that.
There is no air anywhere in the system that we can find - we have bled all the radiators. Even though it is completely cold, the dining room radiator filled up with water when we pressured up the system (you could hear it flowing in through the pipe) and opening the bleed valve releases water immediately.
After re-filling the system, the pressure shown on the boiler is 1.2 bar when hot, which is what is has always been since we moved in.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be the problem? I'll try and provide any more info if needed!
Thanks
Richard
I'll try and provide as much info as possible, so it's quite a long post.
The boiler we have is a Gloworm Swiftflow 75/80 combi boiler, which was fitted at some unknown time before we moved into the house two and a half years ago. When we moved in, all the radiators in the house worked (although with some imbalances in the heat, which we still have and that I'll be trying to sort out once the bigger problem is fixed).
The pipework in our house is a little odd as there are concrete floors downstairs, and the central heating was put in after the house was built, so I hope this description is clear enough:
We have a feed and return system. The feed flows from the boiler in the kitchen into the living room, where the first radiator is located. It then flows upstairs through the wall and splits into branches. The first branch serves the landing radiator and the bathroom radiator. The second branch serves the three bedrooms. The final branch heads back downstairs into the dining room, where it also splits off again to feed a radiator in the conservatory.
In the summer when the heating was entirely isolated, we did some work on the bedrooms. We relocated the radiator in the master bedroom onto another wall further away from the branch, extending the pipes to do so, and fitting a new smaller radiator. We also added some extra pipework to go through the wall into the smallest bedroom, where previously there had not been a radiator, and fitted a small radiator there.
To modify the pipework and fit the new radiators we drained the system; there is no radiator with a drain and so we the easiest drained the system from the bleed valve on the radiator in the dining room.
We did not alter the other two branches, or even see them - they are located under the floorboards on the landing.
When we pressured up the system, the new radiators worked correctly, but to be honest I do not recall whether the dining room radiator worked then or not. Given the problems we are now having, I suspect it did not. The other radiators all work fine.
When we came to use the heating this winter, the dining room radiator did not work at all. Both the feed and return pipes coming down from upstairs are completely cold. We've been using an electric panel heater in there until we found time today to try some testing.
All the radiators in the house have TRVs on them, apart from the bathroom radiator (which is actually a towel rail). The dining room TRV appears to work fine; the pin moves up and down easily when pressed. The other valve on the dining room radiator is fully open.
We have just drained the system again entirely from the dining room radiator. We turned the heating on briefly just to warm the other radiators in the house, and when draining the system, warm water flowed out through the dining room radiator, and the feed pipe to that radiator also got warm. However, when we pressured the system back up and turned the heating back on, that pipe remained cold, as did the radiator.
After that, we tried turning off all the other radiators in the house at their TRVs; but the pipes and radiator in the dining room remained completely cold.
We have never used the radiator in the conservatory, but the pipes for it branch off from those feeding the dining room radiator before they connect to the dining room radiator. We have opened both valves on the conservatory radiator as a test, but that, and the pipes to it, remain completely cold as well.
From cold, the radiators heat up pretty quickly as follows: living room, landing, second bedroom, bathroom, master bedroom, third bedroom. This seems to make sense as the upstairs pipes branch off before feeding any of the radiators, and on their respective branches, the second bedroom and landing radiators are the 'first' radiators - the radiators next in line heat up after that.
There is no air anywhere in the system that we can find - we have bled all the radiators. Even though it is completely cold, the dining room radiator filled up with water when we pressured up the system (you could hear it flowing in through the pipe) and opening the bleed valve releases water immediately.
After re-filling the system, the pressure shown on the boiler is 1.2 bar when hot, which is what is has always been since we moved in.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be the problem? I'll try and provide any more info if needed!
Thanks
Richard
