I had a tall skinny new rad installed in my bathroom in the Autumn. It's made up of 7 individual panels (which for this post I will no. 1 to 7 left to right). 1 has never really got hot, 2 a little bit, then 3 more, 4-7 the best and hot to touch. I got the plumber to rebalance the system 2 weeks ago, I was at work when she did it and came back to invoice stating performing better (but not actually saying 100% hot). When I turned the heating on no. 1 still wasn't really on, 2 a bit then 3-7 hot. This evening i've noticed that it's got even worse from before she rebalanced it. 1-4 are not all affected with only 5-7 hot. I don't understand how a system can keep unbalancing itself? Prior to her visit I bled the kitchen rad (which had air in it), tried the bathroom one but no air came out. It's the left that's affected, and the bleed valve is on the right, along with the TRV (if i've got the lingo right). i tried a rebalancing thang watched on youtube (turn all rads off except the one with the problem) and that did nothing - and when I said I'd done that to her she said the TRV doesn't balance the system or something (I don't fully understand). Other rads are fine, this one is not at the end of the system. Combi boiler Viessman was new in 2013. I emailed her to get an answer as to why it wasn't still getting fully hot and have had no response. I now need to decide if I go to her back to her and say it's got worse again or pay for someone else to look at it, which really hacks me off.. I'm not v DIY so don't feel confident really doing anything else with other valves but it would be great to have some input from you guys out there so I can try and grasp the issue here. Thank you (sorry this was really long).
Tall skinny rad cold on some panels (& getting worse)
- Thread starter Teens25
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Designer column radiators do take a fair bit of balancing to get right because of the massive volume of water compared to the rest of the system.
It may need balancing correctly another thing to consider is the actual heat loss into the room. As you say the first columns from the flow side are hot and depreciate across the rad as the heat is dissipated into the room.
One more thing is to check the volume of the system now and the size of expansion vessel as column rads add a fair bit of water to a system and there are times that the internal vessel isn't big enough to cope with the new rad.
Jon
It may need balancing correctly another thing to consider is the actual heat loss into the room. As you say the first columns from the flow side are hot and depreciate across the rad as the heat is dissipated into the room.
One more thing is to check the volume of the system now and the size of expansion vessel as column rads add a fair bit of water to a system and there are times that the internal vessel isn't big enough to cope with the new rad.
Jon
Thanks Jon and Steve, all these things sound v techie which I can put to her and say have these things been considered. Steve, if I had a dirty system would I not have issues with cold spots on my other rads? (which thankfully I don't).
What size is the pipework leading to the rad? Anything smaller than 15mm, could struggle to feed a rad that size sufficiently, if it has a large capacity.
Steve you mentioned that that some rads state which side the flow and return must be connected, if she has got it the wrong way round would these be the systems or would it have been more obvious from day one that it was wrong. Can it be easily rectified?
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If a "baffled" rad such as the Acova column range, flow direction will be specified relative to the factory fitted vent point.
Easy enough to check.
Easy enough to check.
Sorry to bother you guys again. I discovered today that the distances between the wall and rad vary on all 4 corners, so wondering if this would affect performance / difference in panels heating up differently? Top left is 9cm (wall to outside of rad) Top right is 9.2cm. Bottom left is 9.3, bottom right is 8.4cm.
The response I had from my plumber previous to today's discovery was:
'The radiator is working exactly how it should do the heat ouput is calculated over the area of the radiator..this is more obvious in that specific radiator as it is in separate sections. The hotest part will always be the end with the trv on as that is the flow into the radiator from the boiler. The radiator cools as surface heat is radiated out of the radiator heading towards the lock shield and back on its way to the boiler to be heated up again and pumped out. The reason that you are unaware of this with your other radiators is the front panel is one piece of metal although it is backed with fins the heat radiates in a more regular pattern.'
I'm not sure I'm being fobbed off as there are issues with the quality of their installation?
The response I had from my plumber previous to today's discovery was:
'The radiator is working exactly how it should do the heat ouput is calculated over the area of the radiator..this is more obvious in that specific radiator as it is in separate sections. The hotest part will always be the end with the trv on as that is the flow into the radiator from the boiler. The radiator cools as surface heat is radiated out of the radiator heading towards the lock shield and back on its way to the boiler to be heated up again and pumped out. The reason that you are unaware of this with your other radiators is the front panel is one piece of metal although it is backed with fins the heat radiates in a more regular pattern.'
I'm not sure I'm being fobbed off as there are issues with the quality of their installation?
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