Only one radiator working

[mattworrall]

Hi,

First posting so please be gentle!

So a bit of history. Last year I had a problem with my radiators not heating up, well, only getting tepid. Hot water was fine, and having the hot water on helped get slightly more heat in the radiators.

I decided it was the 3 port valve, so replaced the synchron motor and it did seem to make a big difference, in that all radiators got to something approaching hot.

Anyway, BG came round the other day for a first visit / boiler service as part of my new homecare contract. The engineer noted that although the boiler gets hot in no time, no heat was going into the radiators again, which was odd as it was doing before he started.

He advised that there was a blockage in the system somewhere.

Sure enough none of the radiators upstairs or downstairs are getting much heat. Upstairs ones are warmer than the downstairs ones though, which are barely tepid.

Apart from one radiator. Which is a new towel radiator I installed last week as part of an en-suite bathroom install. This one is piping hot!

Bled the rads and no air has come out. Noted for a couple of months now that the pump is noisy, and sometimes if you listen to it closely it makes a kind of fizzing noise as though small amounts of air are passing through.

Went to check the 3 port valve the other night, just wondering if there was something up with that again. Noted that the BG engineer had left it switched to manual, put it back to auto. The lever is loose regardless of whether CH or HW are on. Only way it returns against spring pressure is if all the power is turned off.

I'm wondering whether there is a blockage or an air lock or even the pump is failing. I've tipped some Sentinel X400 into it with the intention of leaving it a week or so, then draining down.

System details are: Worcester Greenstar 29 HE boiler in kitchen, combined cylinder and header tank upstairs, fitted with Honeywell 3 port valve and Grundfos pump. Majority of the house is plumbed with 10mm speedfit. System (and house) is 15 years old.

Appreciate any ideas folks may have, thanks!

 

[Rob Foster]

I would suspect the pump, any heat in rads might be convection, is the boiler going off on its high stat as heat not getting away centralheatking

 

[mattworrall]

I would suspect the pump, any heat in rads might be convection, is the boiler going off on its high stat as heat not getting away centralheatking

Yes the BG engineer said that the boiler got up to temp very quickly then shut off as "there's nowhere for the heat to go"... so that ties in with what you're saying. Just puzzled as to why one rad gets really hot though and nothing else? Then engineer initially recommended a £700 power flush, but when i said i didn't really want to do that (as I'm imminently selling the house) he suggested taking the pump and 3 port valve off and checking for blockages there.

 

[Rob Foster]

Yes the BG engineer said that the boiler got up to temp very quickly then shut off as "there's nowhere for the heat to go". so that ties in with what you're saying. Just puzzled as to why one rad gets really hot though and nothing else? Then engineer initially recommended a £700 power flush, but when i said i didn't really want to do that (as I'm imminently selling the house) he suggested taking the pump and 3 port valve off and checking for blockages there.

as said convection might account for the rad heating up
bite the bullet go get a cheap pump bang it on and find out
centralheatking

 

[Rob Foster]

Yes the BG engineer said that the boiler got up to temp very quickly then shut off as "there's nowhere for the heat to go". so that ties in with what you're saying. Just puzzled as to why one rad gets really hot though and nothing else? Then engineer initially recommended a £700 power flush, but when i said i didn't really want to do that (as I'm imminently selling the house) he suggested taking the pump and 3 port valve off and checking for blockages there.

bg are trying to sell you solutions which are not needed
work cheap up NOT expensive down centralheatking

 

[Rob Foster]

bg are trying to sell you solutions which are not needed
work cheap up NOT expensive down . you need to realise outfits like BG dont make any money out if the basic homecare package, they need to sell add ons and used tipo be incentivused to do this.
Rob Foster aka centralheatking

 

[mattworrall]

I hear you! yeah I was coming to the same thoughts last night in terms of grabbing a pump from toolstation and swapping it out at the weekend.

 

[Rob Foster]

I hear you! yeah I was coming to the same thoughts last night in terms of grabbing a pump from toolstation and swapping it out at the weekend.

let us all know how you get on please. centraheatking

 

[mattworrall]

Will do, thanks!

 

[doitmyself]

a new towel radiator I installed last week as part of an en-suite bathroom install. This one is piping hot!

1. Is the new towel rad fed from the heating circuit or the HW circuit?
2.Was the system rebalanced after this rad was installed
3. Did you bleed the system with heating of and water cold?
4. Did you bleed ground floor first, then first floor?

The lever is loose regardless of whether CH or HW are on. Only way it returns against spring pressure is if all the power is turned off.

This will happen if the valve was in CH only position and CH is then turned off. It's a 'feature' of the mid-position valve. Calling for HW, or turning power off completely will reset the valve.