We have three flat panel radiators in our kitchen, two mounted vertically and one mounted horizontally - supplied and fitted by our builder when the kitchen extension was done a few years back.
The horizontal radiator has never really heated up properly and my occasional half hearted attempts at a fix over a few years have failed. The lower 4 horizontal rails get hot, but the upper 4 stay cool. First obvious thought was that it just needed bleeding, but I have bled it repeatedly and it is (100% certain) full of water - I have even completely removed the plug and bleed value to make sure it's brimmed. It's not a balance issue either - having noted the position of the lockshield valve opening it fully makes no difference.
Fed up with this I finally got round to taking the rad off the wall and hosing out the gunk in the garden thinking that there may be a blockage. There was a bit of grubby water, but nothing terrible. Put it back on, refilled, pressurized and bled it- no difference!
By this point I'm getting to the 'sod it I'll buy a new radiator', but they're hundreds of pounds so off it came for a second further inspection. It was when I removed the plug and bleed valve and tried looking down the pipe and out the valve end that i noticed that half way up the pipe is a deliberate constriction with a tiny (3-4mm) triangular hole in it.
In vertical configuration I can imagine that this prevents the water simply flowing straight across the base of the radiator and forces it up the rails, but in horizontal mode it means the flow mainly goes through the bottom 4 rails and only a bit of heat convects up into the top half of the radiator? (See picture) This certainly fits the symptoms I am experiencing.
Is this a thing?? Are these radiators orientation-specific. Have I got a'vertical' radiator wrongly fitted horizontally? My next plan is to simply drill out the constriction and see what happens! Any other ideas / suggestions
Cheers
Mark
The horizontal radiator has never really heated up properly and my occasional half hearted attempts at a fix over a few years have failed. The lower 4 horizontal rails get hot, but the upper 4 stay cool. First obvious thought was that it just needed bleeding, but I have bled it repeatedly and it is (100% certain) full of water - I have even completely removed the plug and bleed value to make sure it's brimmed. It's not a balance issue either - having noted the position of the lockshield valve opening it fully makes no difference.
Fed up with this I finally got round to taking the rad off the wall and hosing out the gunk in the garden thinking that there may be a blockage. There was a bit of grubby water, but nothing terrible. Put it back on, refilled, pressurized and bled it- no difference!
By this point I'm getting to the 'sod it I'll buy a new radiator', but they're hundreds of pounds so off it came for a second further inspection. It was when I removed the plug and bleed valve and tried looking down the pipe and out the valve end that i noticed that half way up the pipe is a deliberate constriction with a tiny (3-4mm) triangular hole in it.
In vertical configuration I can imagine that this prevents the water simply flowing straight across the base of the radiator and forces it up the rails, but in horizontal mode it means the flow mainly goes through the bottom 4 rails and only a bit of heat convects up into the top half of the radiator? (See picture) This certainly fits the symptoms I am experiencing.
Is this a thing?? Are these radiators orientation-specific. Have I got a'vertical' radiator wrongly fitted horizontally? My next plan is to simply drill out the constriction and see what happens! Any other ideas / suggestions
Cheers
Mark
