One towel rail not getting hot. Pipes not hot either.

[MrZod]

Hi everyone,

I have a sealed central heating system. There is one towel rail that has never worked. There are two others exactly the same in other parts of the house that work fine...along with all the rest of the radiators. As I was having one downstairs radiator replaced I drained the system and decided to do some investigating on why this particular towel rail isn't working.

Symptoms:

After draining the system during the process of refilling the system, bleeding the towel rail resulted in plenty of air coming out of it and I could feel the flow pipe and the bottom of the towel rail getting hot (The heating wasn't on when I bled it, but it had been just prior).

It seemingly drained when I emptied the system but I don't know if drained through the flow or return (I guess its possible to drain through the flow if you are just draining the system). Hot water could get to it upon refilling the system, but isn't getting to it now the system has been completely refilled. The radiator is cold as are both flow and return pipes, even if the heating has been on for hours.

There is no thermostat on the radiator, so no TRV to worry about.

I have ensured both flow and return vales are full open.

Previous to all this i.e. before draining the system I had shut off all other radiators in the house and left this one open to try and force any blockage out. No luck.

I have bled it several times since and all that happens now is water is coming out and it doesn't get hot. Although I guess if I bled it for long enough some hot water might get through as it did upon refilling the system.

Any suggestions?

 

[HERTS P&D]

Take the radiator off the wall and take it into the garden. Put a hose pipe onto one end and flush it through then do the other end. What you describe is a blocked radiator.

Andy

 

[Terry lambert]

I would attach a male iron to the top of the towel rail with a bit of copper and elbow, then a hose onto the copper and into the toilet or out side.

Open one valve, and then the other in turn. This may force a blockage out.

Has it ever worked ? Sometimes bathroom installers use isolators on the feeds to towel rails buried in the wall or floor, might not be fiully open

 

[MrZod]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

The towel rail has never worked and as far as I know had been installed just prior to me moving in...the whole house had been redone but by someone else. When I moved in all utilities were off so I had no way of testing anything beforehand.

Its tiles on the floor (where the pipes are coming from, so getting to an isolator could be tricky without ripping stuff up.

At present my only two options seem to be the ones you two have suggested. Terrydoh, I'll go with yours first and then Hertsdrainage's idea, but I think an isolator could be the issue as in theory the radiator was brand new when installed.

 

[Agile]

Do what Terry has suggested and tell us the result.

Tony