Sorry for late response. Got sidetracked... Since i had the heads off the motorised valves, i wanted to use immersion heater standalone to get hot water for the house, but since it's rarely used at the plug, it wasn't working. Turned out i needed a new rod thermostat so got that fixed.Any developments? Interested to know how it went.
In meantime as i had the heads off the motorised valves, they were making strange noises. As they were relatively cheap to replace, i replaced the motor heads.
Anyway, after all that, i still have the original problem. Rads getting hot when water on.
Testing further as suggested above, with the system cold and only firing the boiler up for water, it seems the rad valve is passing that heat..
I can only assume i have a bad valve, this was the last resort test as i was hoping not to drain the system.
But would you agree it is a valve problem and that should be replaced at the rad valve? or even both since i have the system drained?
Also, with system drained should i put some inhibitor or cleaner in the system.
I assume this must fix my problem, i hope!
Thanks