Adjusting towel racks

[oceanclub]

Our bedrooms radiators are lukewarm (no air bubble, thermostat set correctly, etc) while the upstairs bathroom towel rack radiator is hot, so I assumed this is stealing too much heat (it's piping hot).

There's two identical valves at the bottom of the towel rack, left and right. Does anyone know how to adjust these? I've no idea which is "in" and which is "out". I tried closing the left hand one fully closed (clockwise) then opened it slightly, at which point there was a juddering rattling sound that freaked me out. If anyone can suggest the order in which things should be closed/opened/etc, would appreciate it.
P
.

 

[JohnD]

doesn't matter.

close them both, then open both by half a turn. Does the radiator get "too hot to hold" on the top and "too hot to hold for long" on the bottom?

If so, you've cracked it.

If not, adjust them by a quarter turn only, and check again in half an hour.

Do the same with all the other radiators that are actually hot. Including the downstairs ones that you didn't mention.

Where you have rads with a knob or a trv at one end, adjust the other end (so that people can't easily fiddle with it and get it out of adjustment.

 

[Madrab]

I'd be surprised if a towel radiator is stealing too much heat given their output, unless it's huuuuge.

Do the other rads get hot if you turn that radiator off? Where is the juddering sound, could the towel radiator be acting as a bypass?

 

[oceanclub]

I'd be surprised if a towel radiator is stealing too much heat given their output, unless it's huuuuge.

Do the other rads get hot if you turn that radiator off? Where is the juddering sound, could the towel radiator be acting as a bypass?

Actually you're right - I tried turning off the towel rail, the radiator nearest it is hot, the other two lukewarm. Does this indicate they need balancing?

P.

 

[JohnD]

What about the downstairs radiators?

All of them need balancing.

 

[oceanclub]

What about the downstairs radiators?

All of them need balancing.

Upstairs and downstairs are on separate "circuits" - there's a thermostat upstairs and downstairs - and downstairs is fine (at least all rads are heating fine, if perhaps not totally equally).

Upstairs, I tried closing the lockshield valve on the hottest radiator by a quarter-turn, and checking the other rads seems to improve things - I'll check them again in 1/2 hour and see. At some point will try and get a pipe thermometer and figure out how to do it properly....

P.

 

[JohnD]

Close them all, then open by half a turn. That will put you at about the right starting point.

If the downstairs rads are fed from the same pump, they still need balancing with the upstairs ones, even if they are on different zones.

Have you got a hot water cylinder? Is it surprisingly hot?

 

[oceanclub]

Close them all, then open by half a turn. That will put you at about the right starting point.

If the downstairs rads are fed from the same pump, they still need balancing with the upstairs ones, even if they are on different zones.

Have you got a hot water cylinder? Is it surprisingly hot?

Ah OK, will balance the whole lot at some point. There's a cylinder alright, no real heat from it but then it's quite insulated (a modern one from last year, not the old lagged types).

P.

 

[JohnD]

I meant, is the water from the cylinder surprisingly hot

or does it get hot when the CH is running, even if the programmer is set to "HW off."

If you ever get a cool radiator, turn all the hot ones down, and the cool one will probably get hot.

 

[oceanclub]

I meant, is the water from the cylinder surprisingly hot

or does it get hot when the CH is running, even if the programmer is set to "HW off."

Honestly hard to tell, we run the hot water program twice a day so always have it when we want.

If you ever get a cool radiator, turn all the hot ones down, and the cool one will probably get hot.

Ta. Noticed just now that the heating didn't come on this evening as the water pressure had gone to zero - had to top it up to get the heating working. No idea if that was a result of my part closing the lockshield valves earlier today.

EDIT: Overnight the pressure went back down again to zero as well.....

P.