Help - Old style Rad with no temp control.

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The individual radiators in my property do not have temp controls and this annoys my tenants. Apparently they are old style radiators coming off microbore pipes, so it’s not a question of just replacing the rads, the complete pipework running through the floor of the 3 story townhouse will have to be changed. Also, the tiny radiator in the bathroom does not come on at all. Other than that, they heat up fine etc.

The tenants are insisting that I upgrade the system so that the radiators can be individually controlled. However, I feel that as long as they heat up, they should suffice since I presume the majority of houses built in this period (1982) must have microbore pipes and the same issues. Also previous tenants never complained on this issue.

Anyway, any advice on the situation would be helped. Also, would you be able to advise on why the bathroom radiator does not heat up? I was once informed (by a novice) that it could be a ‘dummy radiator’?
 
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I will guess from what you say that the tenants are complaining some rooms are too hot, and other too cold. Is that right? Do the cold rooms have small radiators?

you did not mention the room thermostat. Where is it?

As you have microbore, and one radiator not working, it may well be blocked with sediment, or perhaps somebody has turned it off. When was it last bled? Is there a hot water cylinder?

do both pipes go into the same ends of the radiators, or is there a pipe at each end?

do you have a modern pressurised boiler, with a sealed system and a pressure gauge on the front of the boiler, or is there a feed and expansion tank in the loft?

how old is the boiler, and how old is the rest of the system? How often is the boiler serviced, and when was corrosion inhibitor last added?
 
Your guess is spot on - apparantly there is variation in temp particularly between the top floors and the ground floor. It's not so much that some rooms have small rads, but the ground floor has modern rads as it was a relatively recent conversion.

I believe there is a thermostat on the middle floor....

I will check your advice regarding bleeding the bathroom rad.

There is a hot water cylinder on the top floor, but it is a modern type boiler (glowworm HXI) and only about 3 years old. It is in the kitchen.

do both pipes go into the same ends of the radiators, or is there a pipe at each end? Hmmm... My london property is rented out as I live in Germany so I can't go to the property to check this, but based on vague recollections of when I lived there, I feel like both pipes go in the same end.

The boiler is now, the rest of the system is about 1980. Boiler is serviced annually like clockwork and corrosion inhibitor was used probably 10 years ago.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and respond in such detail.

Btw, I was just now browsing the net and came across this link: http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/style-a...n=GoogleBase&gclid=CIbawLKdq7MCFUW_zAod5HUADw

Might it do the trick?
 
that valve only accepts one pipe. If yours has two pipes at one end, it will not fit. It is also a very cheap one.

if you are not local you need to find a trusted local heating engineer to take a look.
 
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that valve only accepts one pipe. If yours has two pipes at one end, it will not fit. It is also a very cheap one.

if you are not local you need to find a trusted local heating engineer to take a look.

Yep, it looks like my rad has two pipes at one end...
 

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