No heat to towel rad

[Female Plumber]

Hi,

Simple basic problem but seems to be a bit head scratching.

Gravity fed system on Y-plan.
All rads getting really hot bar towel rad in bathroom.
All rads on drops so I've put some AAV's on the top off the drops.
Flow pipe gets warm but nothing's getting to the rad. Normally lock shield valves on both sides. Don't look that old.
I've turned every rad off and tried to push through heat but boiler just over heats and cuts out.
Plenty of water coming to rad.

I'm thinking a blockage as apposed to pump or anything as all other rads get hot normally!

Any pointers if anyone's come across similar before I start stripping it

 

[joe-90]

Are you sure that the towel rail valves are really opening and not snapped off inside?

 

[tincup]

Hi

To check if there is a blockage at the valves. Turn off both rad valves to the towel rail.
Take out the air valve and fit a 1/2 " compression elbow in its place and the other end to a piece of copper/plastic pipe into a bucket.
Turn on one valve turn it off, turn on other valve.

HTH

 

[sooey]

Take the towel rad off and open the valves into a bucket, see what comes through.

 

[sooey]

Or you could do it his way.,

 

[Female Plumber]

Hey... Thanks guys Already tried both them

Water comes out when either valve shut off.
It's a strange old one :-/

 

[sooey]

If you're getting a good flow of water out of each valve and the rad won't heat up with others turned down, check for a blockage in the rad.
One of the plastic plugs got pushed inside perhaps??

 

[tincup]

Hi

Then rad off and flushed out.

Did the mfi say it had to go a particular way round?

 

[joe-90]

Are you sure it's piped into flow and return?

 

[Female Plumber]

Yeh... Comes off 22mm pipes in the attic that are heating other rads ok.

 

[leakydave]

I had this problem once and the towel rail was piped to the hot water circuit... just a thought!

 

[joe-90]

Yeah. There's something wrong with the pipes.

 

[ChrisR]

the towel rail was piped to the hot water circuit

very common - you tried heating the HW to see if it gets hot?