Two Radiators - Never Worked Properly

[Georgie73]

Hi

I've been living in the same house for 19 years and the radiators (two of them) in the living room have never worked properly. Basically for one rad to get fully hot, you have to turn the TRV down on the other one.

Originally I had a back boiler but about 9 years ago, I had a powerflush and changed to a powerful Combi. It still didnt sort the problem. Two years ago I changed the radiators and had a another power flush but problem still persisted.

At the moment the living room is freezing. Any ideas what the problem is?

Many thanks
George

 

[Terrywookfit]

The pipework would be a good starting point.
Why have you waited all this time??

 

[Georgie73]

I've always been able to muddle through with the back-up of a gas fire. However the gas fire is one of those decorative sorts where most of the heat goes up the chimney.
I'm now moving out of the house and it will be let out. It's one thing me muddling through, but I wouldn't expect anyone else to do this so I must get it sorted out.

What do you mean about the pipework as a starting point? Both radiators are capable of getting extremely hot all over, however, just not at the same time.

 

[45yearsagasman]

George, your problem does sound like a balancing issue. Have you tried a balancing exercise? It can be time consuming, but it may solve your problem. There is a section in the FAQ's on balancing. Simply put, it requires rads that heat readily having the flow to them restricted by adjusting the lock shield valve so as to allow heating water to reach rads that are not heating so well. It may well be a pipework issue where the rads are fed by pipes that are of insufficient size. Try the balance first.

 

[Georgie73]

Many thanks. I will try the rebalancing.

Funnily enough the people who are moving in have just been here and they said the radiators were plenty hot enough and the overall temperature of the house and the living room was really comfortable. They said I was worrying myself over nothing. I will try the rebalancing though as I think the rads should be a bit warmer than they are.