Old Curved Single Bay Rads replaced with 3 double Not Workin

[Infinity]

Hi,

I recently had a single curved really old bay radiator changed, as it was not heating the room enough. I spoke to a few plumbers and was told I could replace it with 3 new double smaller straight ones. I used a well known website to find the plumber.
In the end I got 2 X 800x600 and 1 X 600x600 fitted together with on thermostat.

I could not find a double curved rad within the budget or any nearby.

The plumber fitted it and only the first radiators gets really hot the other very slighlty. He now says his job is complete and has not been retuning my calls or helping. I'm stuck. What a con man. He ripped me off too!

Anyway I've bled the rads a lot and there is a bit of an improvement, but the first rad still gets really hot and the other don't.

I needed this room to be warm as my wife is expecting and we need the room to be warm for our new baby.

Was the 3 rads solution correct? Does anyone know how I can fix this problem?

I have a Worcester 35CDi boiler which I know is powerful enough. My old radiator did get really hot but was not enough heat for the room!
I've attached some pic so you can see the bodge job!
Any help will be really appreciated.

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• Infinity
• 16 Dec 2010
• 1

Untitled

• Infinity
• 16 Dec 2010
• 1

 

[BingoBongo]

Seen a few of these,not my cup of tea tbh.what about joining up the vent at the top to the middle and having 1 vent on the last rad?

 

[dhill]

Did the old radiator have a trv fitted, which radiator of the three gets warm, is your system a one pipe system. To be honest what he has done and what you ve decided to do personally i think looks ridiculoius and id question why your plumber suggested this set up, surly another flat wall would be better location for just one radiator.

 

[Fellacim]

Oh Dear. You are always going to have problems with that setup. The first rad doesnt look like its on a bracket

 

[Infinity]

Seen a few of these,not my cup of tea tbh.what about joining up the vent at the top to the middle and having 1 vent on the last rad?

Sorry not too cluded up with all this. Do you mean make a connection from top of the middle radiators, so its the same as the bottom.

Thanks

 

[Infinity]

Did the old radiator have a trv fitted, which radiator of the three gets warm, is your system a one pipe system. To be honest what he has done and what you ve decided to do personally i think looks ridiculoius and id question why your plumber suggested this set up, surly another flat wall would be better location for just one radiator.

There was a TRV fitted to the old Rad. The one furthest away from the TRV is the warmest. So in the pic it the one on the left. I know it looks horrible, but it was done to save costs! What a mistake.

 

[dhill]

You could try what BingoBongo suggests, may help a little but this will obviously mean searching for another plumber and if that plumber is prepared to take that job on he is a braver man then the first. I would cut my losses find a recomened helpful plumber who will install one radiator calculated to heat the room correctly and sort this mess out. Try flogging the radiators on ebay to claw some cash back

 

[ivixor]

Tried balancing the system? You'll need a good deal of flow through that lot for them to all get hot. Proper solution would have probably been 3 seperate rads each with their own flow/return?

 

[Infinity]

Tried balancing the system? You'll need a good deal of flow through that lot for them to all get hot. Proper solution would have probably been 3 seperate rads each with their own flow/return?

Yes tried to balance the system but still no good. Maybe I try to find someone to re-plum the three to make them have thier own flow/return.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

It is a fact that the rads will heat up one at a time without a connection through the top of the rads. Are you allowing time for this to happen?

If after half an hour or so and balancing the system it still isnt hot, then my bet is that the guy got a bit carried away with the ptfe tape and effectively created a blockage on one of the 6 rad tails.

 

[Infinity]

It is a fact that the rads will heat up one at a time without a connection through the top of the rads. Are you allowing time for this to happen?

If after half an hour or so and balancing the system it still isnt hot, then my bet is that the guy got a bit carried away with the ptfe tape and effectively created a blockage on one of the 6 rad tails.

I've lef tthe heating on for ages... a good few hours. As the pips to connect the rads are short and bent he did get some leaks. He used some stuff from Wickes to stop leakes (glue/paste stuff). He may have used ptfe tape too. But after spending ages bleeding the rads it has improved very slighlty.

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

Could be that you have an airlock in the pipework then.

What I would do there after getting the carpet out of the way is turn off both valves and disconnect the [rad_rad_rad] at the TRV end and by *connecting a hose* run some water through from both directions.

The *connecting a hose* bit is the hard bit for a DIYer. I would do this by using a 15mm compression stop end fitting for the rad tail, a 15mm compression straight connector and a small piece of copper to connect to the hose

 

[Terrywookfit]

IT will never work like that.
Do as B B suggests, Or better still pipe all 3 in parallel with a reverse return.

 

[johnnojob]

seems middle and right rad will heat up with return water.
so he has installed your rads in a 1 pipe setup.
you really need them installed independently and ensure rads are well fixed to the wall.
you could try briging the flow which appears to be your left rad into the top of the radiator then use the chrome connectors on the top and cap off bottom connections,seen this in european installations.

 

[YELLERBELLY]

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• YELLERBELLY
• 17 Dec 2010
• 1