No heat in downstairs radiators

[blueharvester]

We have a small two bedroom terrace house that we rent out. This has oil fired central heating system with which there seems to be a problem.

When we turn on the heating the burner in the back yard fires up and starts heating the water. The upstairs radiators will heat up fine but not the downstairs ones. Downstairs we have a double radiator in the living room and a single in the kitchen. All radiators in the house have thermostatic valves fitted and all valves are set to their highest which is 6. All radiators are turned on too. The pipes coming up from under the floor to the downstairs radiators don't even seem to be warm!

What could be the problem with this? Would it be that some of the radiators need bled?

 

[seco services]

try shutting all the upstairs rads. to force full flow round the bottom rads.
see if they warm up then

 

[blueharvester]

try shutting all the upstairs rads. to force full flow round the bottom rads.
see if they warm up then

Thanks, I'll give this a go this evening when I get back to the house. If this fails, is there anything else I can try?

So I take it the heating system all runs in a circuit with the hot water going to the upstairs radiators first and then going back down through the downstairs radiators and then out to the burner again?

 

[seco services]

where is the pump and motorised valve located is it upstairs in a airing cupboard with copper hot water cylinder ?

 

[blueharvester]

where is the pump and motorised valve located is it upstairs in a airing cupboard with copper hot water cylinder ?

I'm not sure, I think it may be located in the upstairs airing cupboard with the copper hot water tank.

Also, beside the hot water tank there's also a small red cyclinder about the size of a football. There's also a pressure gauge on this. Would this have anything to do with it?

 

[seco services]

sealed system

 

[blueharvester]

sealed system

What exactly does this mean?

 

[seco services]

no header tank in loft. the red ball as you say is an expanssion vessel

 

[blueharvester]

no header tank in loft. the red ball as you say is an expanssion vessel

So does this expanssion vessel have anything to do with why the downstairs radiators aren't heating up? Maybe the pressure gauge is wrong on the expanssion vessel??

 

[seco services]

check the pressure is about 1.5 bar

 

[blueharvester]

check the pressure is about 1.5 bar

Thanks for all the help, I will report back when I try the above.

 

[seco services]

 

[blueharvester]

Sorry, just one more thing.

The only thermostat in the system is in the burnder which is located in the back yard. This can be turned to 60, 75 or 90. What exactly does this do? If it's set to 75 will it stop burning when the water hits 75 degrees C?

What should I set this to?

 

[seco services]

yes
yes 75 ok.

 

[blueharvester]

check the pressure is about 1.5 bar

the gauge says 0.6 but when I try turning the nossel water comes out the back of it! What do I need to do?