Downstairs radiators take ages to warm up

[realalefan]

When our boiler starts, most of the upstairs radiators heat up fairly quickly but all the downstairs radiators (and one upstairs) take a long time to warm up (about 2 hours) and even then, only become warm rather than hot. The pipes into all the radiators are piping hot.

I've tried bleeding all radiators so I don't think that is the problem.

There is probably a TRV problem with one radiator that never heats up but even the radiator in the hall (which doesn't have a TRV as there is a wall thermostat in the hall) takes ages to warm up, even though it was flushed out recently.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[spraggo]

What system have you got, combi, gas, oil etc. have you checked that the CH pump is running?.

 

[45yearsagasman]

Pump performance,balancing,blockages in system.Either way a good heating engineer would be able to diagnose and advise,unless you are prepared to get your hands dirty(and maybe your carpets if not careful)

 

[joe-90]

You say they were flushed out recently - did it make any difference? Sometimes the gunge gets that hard that they can't be cleared successfully - so you have to get now ones. Did you take them out into the garden to flush them?

 

[realalefan]

You say they were flushed out recently - did it make any difference? Sometimes the gunge gets that hard that they can't be cleared successfully - so you have to get now ones. Did you take them out into the garden to flush them?

Only the radiator in the hall was flushed out. The plumber removed it and took it into the garden where he flushed it out with a hosepipe over the outside drain. The water that came out the other end was very black. Once refitted, he couldn't work out why it didn't heat up and declared he had run out of ideas and now doesn't return my calls.

 

[realalefan]

What system have you got, combi, gas, oil etc. have you checked that the CH pump is running?.

The system is run on Economy-7. It heats up a huge tank of hot water overnight then feeds it through the radiators when the timer comes on (dhw is provided separately)

The CH pump is running and I even turned it up from low to high.

 

[markbro]

If your water was black and thick like oil you seriously need a good flushing but before paying for a flush try and drain your whole system first, this should take about 20mins. Open all of yor valves and drain at the lowest point. open the bleed valves after a while to allow it to drain quicker. close all bleed valves once emptied.

Then take off all your radiators and give them a good hoseing (at least 5times) shaking, turning upsidedown until all of the sludge is out. Then make sure to top-up with inhibitor, I use at least 2 tubs. you can get it online for £8 each, dont pay Wickes price of £19 I just take out the bleed valve and use a large syringe to insert the inhibitor into the whole.

If your system doesnt drain properly you may have a blocked pipe, I once had a blocked pipe near the t-bar. Even a power flush wouldnt clear my pipes...! All of my radiators didnt work and after numerous call-outs and £2k quotes I ripped up the floor boards and went from rad to rad seeing if the pipe was blocked, u just need to blow thru it. One pipe was blocked a metre long, as hard as an iron bar!!, I simply replaced with new poly-plum piping and checked the rest of them. All working fine now at a cost of £90 for the piping and fittings. It took about 8hrs in total to check all rads but it was worth it.

All of these problems happened because the installer didnt add inhibitor...and it cost me a fortune in parts for the boiler as the sludge works its way around the sytem blocking parts, all because of an £8 tub of inhibitor!!

If still scarred by sludge buy a magna-clean, vital piece of kit for £100