Right, here's the thing. I know v.little about central heating, so forgive me if I ask questions of the sucking eggs variety, but...
I have a Glowworm boiler. It's old. It's not a condensing, combi, whatever you call it, and there is a hot water tank in the airing cupboard etc. I have owned my terraced property for nearly ten years now and have just had the boiler serviced for the first time (new first-time Br.Gas Homecare contract).
About 5 and a bit years ago I had a bit of a plumbing emergency and I can't precisely remember the reason why, but I saw fit to remove the two downstairs radiators (living room and kitchen). I have just realised that these two rooms are now quite cold, so I would like to have them both back on. Both of these rads are fed from a single flow and a single return pipe both of which split into two in the hole under the stairs and then go through the left and right walls to feed the living room and the kitchen (they appear to come directly from the cylinder, only a few feet above in the bathroom airing cupboard). When I removed them a few years ago I installed in-line cut-off valves to cap the pipes and I have now reinstalled the kitchen radiator, which is what gives rise to my query.
I used copper pushfit fittings (the cutoffs are a plastic pushfit) and new valves (are they known as lockshield valves?) which have compression connections and to cut a long story short, when I connected it all up, used all the right PTFE tape in the right places etc and got to the moment of truth point, I turned the plastic cutoffs back on, after 5 and half years and guess what, nothing leaked! The valve at the return end of the rad I left on shut and opened the bleed nut at the top and guess what, steam started coming out and the radiator started filling up! Fantastic! After a few minutes water started spurting out of the bleed valve so I thought that's it and tightened the bleed valve back up and turned the new valve at the out end of the rad to fully open. What was even better was that the radiator was then hot, for the first time in five years and therefore the kitchen too! This all took place of course at a time when the central heating was on. I repeat, nothing's leaking.
However, shortly after, the radiator cooled down and now will not get hot again at all. The strange thing is that if you put your hand around the pipe leading directly into the flow (in) valve, it's hot, but none of the radiator is, not even at the bottom. I don't know if this is significant, but the other rad to the living room is still off and the pipes (seeing as they are the same pipes split into two branches) are capped. The upstairs radiators still warm up okay.
What's up? What am I doing wrong? Have I used wrong valves, have I bled it wrong, is a new valve faulty or something, do Ineed to have all the radiators installed for it work properly (is it something to do with the circuit of water?), but why no heat after the initial success? and by the way, is it correct that when my CH is on, the boiler comes on and off at approximately 5 minute intervals?
Thanks for any assistance anybody can help.
Simon
I have a Glowworm boiler. It's old. It's not a condensing, combi, whatever you call it, and there is a hot water tank in the airing cupboard etc. I have owned my terraced property for nearly ten years now and have just had the boiler serviced for the first time (new first-time Br.Gas Homecare contract).
About 5 and a bit years ago I had a bit of a plumbing emergency and I can't precisely remember the reason why, but I saw fit to remove the two downstairs radiators (living room and kitchen). I have just realised that these two rooms are now quite cold, so I would like to have them both back on. Both of these rads are fed from a single flow and a single return pipe both of which split into two in the hole under the stairs and then go through the left and right walls to feed the living room and the kitchen (they appear to come directly from the cylinder, only a few feet above in the bathroom airing cupboard). When I removed them a few years ago I installed in-line cut-off valves to cap the pipes and I have now reinstalled the kitchen radiator, which is what gives rise to my query.
I used copper pushfit fittings (the cutoffs are a plastic pushfit) and new valves (are they known as lockshield valves?) which have compression connections and to cut a long story short, when I connected it all up, used all the right PTFE tape in the right places etc and got to the moment of truth point, I turned the plastic cutoffs back on, after 5 and half years and guess what, nothing leaked! The valve at the return end of the rad I left on shut and opened the bleed nut at the top and guess what, steam started coming out and the radiator started filling up! Fantastic! After a few minutes water started spurting out of the bleed valve so I thought that's it and tightened the bleed valve back up and turned the new valve at the out end of the rad to fully open. What was even better was that the radiator was then hot, for the first time in five years and therefore the kitchen too! This all took place of course at a time when the central heating was on. I repeat, nothing's leaking.
However, shortly after, the radiator cooled down and now will not get hot again at all. The strange thing is that if you put your hand around the pipe leading directly into the flow (in) valve, it's hot, but none of the radiator is, not even at the bottom. I don't know if this is significant, but the other rad to the living room is still off and the pipes (seeing as they are the same pipes split into two branches) are capped. The upstairs radiators still warm up okay.
What's up? What am I doing wrong? Have I used wrong valves, have I bled it wrong, is a new valve faulty or something, do Ineed to have all the radiators installed for it work properly (is it something to do with the circuit of water?), but why no heat after the initial success? and by the way, is it correct that when my CH is on, the boiler comes on and off at approximately 5 minute intervals?
Thanks for any assistance anybody can help.
Simon
