Living Room Radiator Not Getting Hot

[DP]

I'm guessing that maybe pump was set to 3 as either it needed a bit more oomph due to being old and worn or that the distance to rads warrants it.
House is a large ish 4 bedroom which has also been extended on top of that a couple of times.

Do not guess. You most likely do not need a new pump or need to create more work by taking all the rads off to clean out or chemical flush be undertaken.

If you want to continue with the task, get yourself two clamp thermometers and take note of flow and return temperature at each radiator and at the cylinder, post the results and will continue with remote faulting.

Check temperature of water in the F&E cistern when boiler running

Blueloo I would love to follow your advice and charge the customer for work you suggest.

 

[BlueLoo]

I'm guessing that maybe pump was set to 3 as either it needed a bit more oomph due to being old and worn or that the distance to rads warrants it.
House is a large ish 4 bedroom which has also been extended on top of that a couple of times.

Have you checked for pump over?
Do you have a stick? (in-joke )

I like to identify at the cause of problems before prescribing a solution.
Cure the illness, not treat the symptom.

Your system has worked for years. Now it isn't. What has changed?
Apparently nothing, so something has either worn out or degraded.
So look to see what the corrosion in the sytem is like. Take a rad off, put it in the garden, bung a hose on it, wack it with a soft mallet (Gently) and see what comes out. If its not much, then you could think corrosion isn't an issue.
If it pukes black, you've identified something.

Won't do any harm either to clean them out. I have a system like yours and was astounded at the difference to the system when i removed the rads and flushed them out. Took me about 2hrs to remove and refit a dozen of them.
I then added cleaner for a fortnight and the system now behaves very well.

If you are handy, you could remove the pump and inspect the impeller, clean it up and its casing if required. If its bad, you could fit a modern pump which are stronger than the older ones anyway so you'd probably be fine on speed 1 tbh.

Bung in cleaner which will help the boiler he/ex and the indirect coils, flush, job done.

It isn't difficult. You've a vented system (clean out the head tank as well). Think of it as an annual service

 

[BlueLoo]

Do not guess. You most likely do not need a new pump or need to create more work by taking all the rads off to clean out or chemical flush be undertaken.

If you want to continue with the task, get yourself two clamp thermometers and take note of flow and return temperature at each radiator and at the cylinder, post the results and will continue with remote faulting.

Check temperature of water in the F&E cistern when boiler running

Blueloo I would love to follow your advice and charge the customer for work you suggest.

I know.
Can you explain why removing and flushing out what are clearly very old radiators and cleaning the system oneself is not a good idea?

 

[WSB]

I'm pretty handy but don't want to be removing rads in the winter and risk being without heating for a period of time for whatever other issues may crop up along the way. Don't think my family will appreciate that.

It's not a case of the system not working all of a sudden. Hasn't been great since i can remember.

It's just that i thought I'd get things running better and a rad that was cold was a good starting point.

At some point I'll replace all rads which are pretty old with new ones and put nice new valves on too.

Currently was just tyring to improve what i have. The advice on here so far has certainly helped with that.

 

[BlueLoo]

I'm pretty handy but don't want to be removing rads in the winter and risk being without heating for a period of time for whatever other issues may crop up along the way. Don't think my family will appreciate that.

It's not a case of the system not working all of a sudden. Hasn't been great since i can remember.
It's just that i thought I'd get things running better and a rad that was cold was a good starting point.
At some point I'll replace all rads which are pretty old with new ones and put nice new valves on too.
Currently was just tyring to improve what i have. The advice on here so far has certainly helped with that.

Fair enough.

Be wary if you start replacing stuff, it can be a long road.
I started by changing a valve and ended up replacing the pump, the control system, the rad valves, the tank, some of the plumbing, the bypass arrangements, the head tank, etc!

It was all needed, the system had seen its lifespan and the valve was the straw that broke the camels back.

If you change the rads, and the valves, then take a step back, ask the engineers on here and think about putting in what is correct (could be smaller, could be bigger) rather than direct replacements.
Same for the valves, Twould be a good time to put in TRVs if not fitted, but then, should you just add the valve bodies only ?(Cheaper) and install smart trv heads, etc, etc.

Best of luck

 

[Madrab]

If you are getting some heat through the rads then that's certainly a step in the right direction.

With the rads that heat up well do they seem closer to the boiler than the ones that don't? Do any have cold spots say in a curve from the bottom centre of the panel? I.E. do they heat fully across the whole rad panel? What colour is the system water when you bleed the rads?

 

[WSB]

The boiler is upstairs and all the rads upstairs are very hot.
Downstairs it's a mixed bag with some getting hot and some warm, although with recent adjustments this seems to be more balanced downstairs now.
Water when bleeding is clear.
I cleaned out the CH header in the loft last year and put sentinel in.