Confused about different types of radiator materials

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J

julia

Can someone help me and my mum with this...she's getting a heating system installed by Nu Heat, it's a heat pump system, mostly underfloor but she also wants some towel rails in the bathroom and an old-fashioned style radiator in the kitchen.

She's been told she can only put stainless steel radiators/towel rails on the circuit, something to do with the water not just staying in the radiators but being pumped around the house, including out of drinking taps? Dunno if this makes sense, I don't know jack all about plumbing...

Anyway, the point is she wants a traditional style radiator in the kitchen, but doesnt really want it all shiny and stainless steel. All the stainless steel radiators we've looked at are modern and pretty the-same looking. Has she slightly misunderstood what the Nu Heat guys are saying, and can she get a radiator that is not solid stainless steel, but that is any non ferrous metal? Do most radiators that are made now have non-ferrous insides despite their outside appearance? And if not, does anyone know where she can buy a traditional radiator (like the old cast iron ones) that is suitable for her new heating system?

Any help would be much appreciated!
 
Not sure about answer to your question but if she doesnt follow installers advise she may risk invalidating the warentee on her new system!
paul
 
Julia

Talk to Nu Heat again as what they are saying (or the interpretation of it) is just wrong.

The only way you can have water that comes out of the taps running through a radiator or towel rail is if these are installed in the hot water circuit. This is contrary to the Water Regulations and should (must) not be done.
 
Water in the radiators must be a separate circuit to the water from the taps.
 
no no no. ypu can have towel radiators on the HW circuit but they are normally made of brass and cost about 3 times as much £££. Your drinking taps will be the kitchen tap fed from the mains so this wont be affected

It will need to be brass so no rust occurs when you fill up your bath, basin etc

Unless its change with out me knowing, on to google and building regs it is for me
 
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Plumbstar Tom said:
no no no. ypu can have towel radiators on the HW circuit but they are normally made of brass and cost about 3 times as much £££. Your drinking taps will be the kitchen tap fed from the mains so this wont be affected

It will need to be brass so no rust occurs when you fill up your bath, basin etc

Unless its change with out me knowing, on to google and building regs it is for me
Click to expand...

NO NO NO AGAIN,towel rails on the hw 2ndry circulation circuit should not be made of brass or they will suffer fron dezincfication of the brass. The correct make of a towel rail on the hw circuit is to be made from copper tube and soldered with zinc free joints, which is then chrome plated.
 
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i took about thirty brass towel rails out of gt ormond st hospital about 5 years ago and they had been on the hot water circuit for 70 years no sign of any corrosion any brass or copper towel rail can go on the hot water circuit
its the cheapy ladders that are normally made of chromed steel you cant use
 
Hi Julia. Its possible your questions to Nu heat were fired at a sales Rep. who know loads about selling and not so much about the product. Ask there Tec. dept if the job they proposed is a closed circuit heating system. If this is the case the extra rads etc. you mention should not be a problem in any material. Good Luck
 
Hmm!

The reason, some don't like mixed metals in a system, is that they can react with one another. In short it perhaps works a bit like this, each metal gives off a small electric charge and if one metal is more positive than another, you get a sort of short circuit, that causes them to rust.

This is helped by the nature of the water running in the circuit.

If the water really does serve radiators and taps, then the oxygenated water flowing to the taps, attacks the metal the rads are made of, if the metal they are made of, isn't of the correct sort.

Must admit I don't think the rads would be fitted on the dhw though. But then who knows.
 
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thank you all so much for all your replies...I've read them all, but am still confused! my mum's going to speak to a technition from nu heat tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have some answers then. thanks!
 
stevetheplumber said:
i took about thirty brass towel rails out of gt ormond st hospital about 5 years ago and they had been on the hot water circuit for 70 years no sign of any corrosion any brass or copper towel rail can go on the hot water circuit
its the cheapy ladders that are normally made of chromed steel you cant use
Click to expand...

thieving blighter, no wonder the kiddies are cold😱 seriously, the advice came straight out of a text book and having seen the sate of some 2 yr old modern gate valves on hw circuits i wouldnt use a modern brass rad, your 70 years old items where made properly back then remember🙂
 
Hmm!

It seems to be true that stuff is not made as good today as it was years ago. I thought at one time it was me getting a bit older. But apparently not if washing machines are anything to go by.
By now they should have been able to make a washing machine that hardly ever breaks down. The thing is, it seems they break down even before the 12 months guarantee is out.

One explanation is that to keep costs down they use untried pcb's if they are cheaper than the ones they use now. I think Potterton got into a lot of trouble over using cheap pcb's in one of their boilers not so long ago. I don't think the same applies to boilers though as I can understand up to point that washing machines manufacturers try to keep prices down and instead of being around the £200 mark as many are, built to older standards they would be more like £600 and people would not buy them.

Boilers however are not cheap, they just seem to be overpriced.

You have to look carefully at what sales people say, sometimes I suppose it may just be a cheap added component on the pcb that does something or other new and they charge a fortune for it.

Lets not kid ourselves boiler development hasn't really improved much in the last ten years I don't think. Its about time we started getting reliability out of boilers, not told its got new ge gaws, and you can get .000001% more efficiency out of them, you may be able to get that if you turned out the standby light, when you shut the boiler down.
 
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