Cold radiator

Hi guys

I am a real novice when it comes to plumbing, so please bear with me. I was hoping my HomeResponse would cover this, but they won't send anyone out unless the whole system is down. £15 a month seems to be going to waste!

The radiator in my living room is always cold. It doesn't need bled (water just comes out). At times the top gets lukewarm but that's about it.

Anyway, read a few of the posts on here and noticed the advice seemed to be to turn the other heaters off and see if anything happened. Did that, and it did indeed get hot! Now I've turned the others on again, the living room has got cold!

Please help!

Jon.

Balance your system.

Details in FAQ, 5 posts down

Ah thanks!

Have got the spanner out, but can't quite figure out what I'm meant to be turning!



I unscrewed the top nut and removed it. Is it the bottom nut the lockshield? When I turned it anti clockwise, water just started dripping out where the pipe joins the valve, so I just tightened it up again.

The top nut just compresses the gland around the spindle. The really big nut actually holds the valve into its housing. Don't undo it unless you fancy a geyser of boiling water!

You need to close the valve by turning the spindle clockwise with an adjustable spanner until it's almost closed. Balancing the rads will be a question of laboriously doing this round the house until you divert enough water to the cold rad.

Also have a look at your pump and check it's not running on speed 1. Speed 11 or even 111 might be better.