Heated towel rail not working

[Chris H]

My heated towel in the bathroom won't work properly. I have taken it off and flushed it out but that didn't do anything. So yesterday I turned off all the radiators bar that one and miraculously it worked. It took a long time to heat up but eventually it was very hot. I thought I'd cracked it but as soon as I put the other radiators on it stopped working. Even the pipe coming out the flooring doesn't heat up.

As we have a open staircase it means the house gets freezing in the winter. Is there anything else I could be doing here?

 

[terryplumb]

Sounds like a balancing problem . Has this radiator ever worked satisfactorily ?

 

[Chris H]

No, it's never worked correctly. When we moved in it would occasionally work but even when it did it was poor. Is there anyway to fix this?

 

[terryplumb]

Balancing a system ensures each and every radiator receives an equal share of the hot water that's pumped around the system. Your towel rad is being denied its share ,so to speak. Each rad has two valves ,one is called the lockshield and its that one that needs adjusting on all other rads. You can read up on how to do it yourself ,or engage a c/heating engineer to do it.
Have a look at the WIKI on this site.

 

[Chris H]

Balancing a system ensures each and every radiator receives an equal share of the hot water that's pumped around the system. Your towel rad is being denied its share ,so to speak. Each rad has two valves ,one is called the lockshield and its that one that needs adjusting on all other rads. You can read up on how to do it yourself ,or engage a c/heating engineer to do it.
Have a look at the WIKI on this site.

Thank you for your help, I will look into this further

 

[CBW]

If this was the only one working after closing all the others and took it’s time heating, I would think there’s a possible partial blockage.

 

[Chris H]

If this was the only one working after closing all the others and took it’s time heating, I would think there’s a possible partial blockage.

Thank you for the response. How could I resolve this?

 

[CBW]

Thank you for the response. How could I resolve this?

If it’s only partially blocked you might be able to chemically flush or have it power flushed, if it’s only a small section then a re-pipe would be better.

 

[Chris H]

Hi all. I balanced the radiators throughout the property and the towel rail worked.........for 4 days!

Absolutely gutted, was working perfectly then checked this morning and nothing. Any ideas what is going on here?

 

[terryplumb]

Does it have a thermostatic radiator valve ?
Is it full of air , have you bled it ?

 

[dilalio]

Change it for a rad... Towel rails aren't for room heat anyhow!

While it's off... Pipe between the 2 valves and see if that gets hot.