Radiators not working, but upstairs towel rail is?

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Hello,

First of all I have 0% experience with anything plumbing or radiator related, never even bled one, so be gentle with me :)

We've just bought my first house (yay!) and we moved in yesterday, although we have noticed that none of the radiators seem to be working... The central heating system is set to be on "constant" and "central heating & water".

We have one main boiler in the kitchen (can provide details if needed), and there is one back-boiler in the front room behind the fireplace. I was told in the survey that it was an old central heating system but appeared to be working.

There is a radiator in pretty much every room in the house, and each one seems identical, and none of them are working upstairs or down... Although one weird thing is that there is a heated tower rack in the bathroom that is working fine and is roasting.

I've checked all radiators and there are 2 pipes on the left hand side (pictures provided below), these pipes are cold on all radiators, so it seems like the hot water isnt even getting to there... There is a "Yorkshire Imperial" valve on the left side of each one, and ive tried moving it round towards what seems to be "off" and back on and still nothing has changed...

radiator-left-side.jpg

Left side of radiator

radiator-right-side.jpg

Right side of radiator

I've seen the term Microbore dotted around the internet when searching around this stuff, and they appear to be problematic but they all seem to be in good nick and the upstairs heating rack is working which makes me think there needs to be something turned on somewhere...

I am more than happy to bleed them all (if someone could tell me what valve to loosen) but if anyone can give me any advice as its pretty cold and I dont want to wear 3 layers for another few months :(

Thanks in advance!
 
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Just thought I would add some more info while im waiting for a response...

I've checked the boiler and felt each pipe to see which are hot and cold, below is a rubbish diagram I drew to try and show which pipes are hot and which are cold.

boiler-info.jpg


Not sure if it matters but I've checked and the hot water is working from the normal taps...

When I moved in the stop cock was turned off, so I had to turn that back on and I know that the house was not being lived in before hand so they turned off a lot of things in the house so nothing broke during the winter, so it may be that I need to turn one of the red wheels in the boiler cupboard or something, but I will wait for some feedback before I do anything...
 
ALmost certainly, your problem is SLUDGE, which comes from corroded radiators.
Most unlikely to be "just a valve" but we can't see the system, so,...

I would
remove downstairs radiator(s). That might clear the problem, but I doubt it. It would probably reveal horrible muck.
They're old, and if new ones aren't too expensive, bin the lot. ( new rads might be only £30 -£80 each, have a look)
Your radiator valves are troublesome , and I believe absolete. That means some pipework extensions, to the other side of the rads.

If you're very unlucky, those thin pipes could be blocked. Mains pressure can be tried to clear them, but it doesn't always push through, surprisingly.
If that's the case you'll need to repipe.

If it can be got working, it very probably is sludgy cos it's so old, so a proper powerflush would be in order.
 
How is the hot water being heated? By immersion heater or boiler?
Does the boiler try and fire up for the heating?
 
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How is the hot water being heated? By immersion heater or boiler?
Does the boiler try and fire up for the heating?

Not sure :( I presume boiler (which is the one on the bottom picture) the only other thing related to the central heating/water system I have is a back boiler or water tank (not sure which) behind the fire place...

Is there any way to find out? I have attached a picture of the label on the big thing in the kitchen with all those pipes in the previous diagram...

boiler-front.jpg


@ChrisR

We want to rip out the whole thing and put in new radiators and combi boiler so we can get rid of the back boiler and move the flue, but its just not practical to do at this time of year due to the amount of wall smashing and things and I cant get much time off work for a couple of months.
 
OH a friend whos just come round mentioned that the main boiler is behind the fireplace, so cant really show you much around that, the other thing must just be a hot water tank or something...

This being the case and im an idiot thinking the hot water tank was the main thing... I remember hearing some clicking sounds last night from around that area (the fireplace) as if something was lighting up then going off... so that may have been the igniter or whatever its called...
 
It could just be a pump stuck and not circulating - But as you have a Back Boiler which may or may not have been serviced . Seriously I would get a Gas Safe engineer in to check the boiler and firefront for safety , and maybe get the system circulating . The issue of maybe repiping/ new boiler is, in my opinion , a secondary one .
 
I would go with Nigel...pump not switched on/fuse ?
The towel rail is prob on gravity and don't need the pump to get hot.
 
towel rails are often/sometimes fed from the Cylinder supply, so they get warm when you have a bath even when the heating is off.

as you have a back boiler, which is probably very old, you might well have a gravity supply to the cylinder which circulates without a pump.

do you feel any vibration or heat on the pump to suggest it is running? have you found the room stat, and does it click?
 
Its ok crisis averted...

They are all on now, I put the thermostat up to about 30 as it was on 15 then everything kicked in and started working. So it seems like it was just not kicking in when it should be...

It was serviced in May, so it *should* all be working fine for the moment, a friends Dad advised me to whack it up to full and leave it on for a while and make sure none of them need bleeding, so doing that now...

Anyway thanks for all the help guys!
 

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