So one of my radiators has stopped working.

I’ve took the top off the trv and as far as I can see the plunger is moving freely.

All the other rads are getting warm nice and quick.

I’m not sure but I think the pipe that feeds into this rad felt warm too.

Conversely we have had a plumber in all wee redoing the bathroom and he had to turn the heating and water off to move things around.

Since he turned everything abxk on he says he noticed this rad isn’t working ??

Could he have done something just by doing bathroom plumbing ? All he done heating wise was remove the bathroom rad and tile behind it then refit the rad.

Any ideas ?

Bleed it?

Call the plumber back. Say it worked before he was there, now it doesn’t, and would he mind having a quick look, please and thank you.

The plumber is coming back tomorrow. He says he got it working last night and that it might just need bleeding.

Hopefully that’s all it is.

Seems a bit strange that it was working until he done the bathroom but apart from taking the rad off and then fitting it again he hasnt tampered with heating system ?

Is it warm at the bottom and cold at the top? If so, just bleed it yourself. Five minute job.

No it’s totally cold.

could be airlocked. you could try shutting down some, or all the other rads to force some water through it. might work.

I’d shut the other radiators down, (counting the turns on each radiator to set them back again)
Then bleed it.

Get it all hot, turn off, bleed it then top up from the filling loop to the right pressure. Shouldn’t take long.

Is it just the one radiator? I had a problem with 3 of my upstairs rads not being as warm as downstairs and it was due to the amount of crap in the system. Flushed out, it all works fine now.

Your rad is sick.

We have one that can get a bad air lock.
After draining down, it will only start working after most of the others are turned off. After that it’s fine.

Sounds like he’s opened the lockshield valve on the rad he removed too far so hes unbalanced the system.

What dropoff said… He may have unbalanced the system by not restricting the flow through the refitted rad. Which is set using the lockshield valve, the one you don’t normally touch.

trv valve may have stuck.turn on heating and give the metal parts of the valve a few smacks with the handle of a largeish screw driver
i am not a plumber but done this a few times and worked most times

Your rad is sick.

It can’t be – if it was sick it would have a temperature…

The trv moves freely.

Put a fox shirt on it.

So I’ve managed to get some heat into it today by turning off all the other rads in the house and cranking the heating up.

It’s very noisy though in a woosh sort of way. Sounds like the noise you get when you put a shell next to your ear ?

I’ve tried bleeding it but all that came out was water and under quite a bit of pressure ? Didn’t bleed it for long due to this. Only about 5-10 second.

Any ideas.

what did plumber say?

renton did you actually try giving it a a few good smacks. just because it turns freely does not mean the internals are not stuck.

Put a fox shirt on it.

😆

No I took the top part of the trv off and made sure the plunger but inside moves freely and it does.

The plu!mber came back and said all he did was took the rad off in the bathroom by closing the valves at both ends and the taking it off.

He says he noticed the cold rad wasn’t working when he turned the heating back on after he had finished. He says he managed to get it working again by cranking the heating up.

I’ve also noticed the valves on the radiator in the bathrrom are both fully open. Is that right ?

What Dropoff and I could still be the problem.

If that rad the fitter removed was at the furthest point from the boiler you’d expect the lockshield valve to be fully open. As radiators get closer to the boiler, you’d expect to have the lockshield valves wound in, and the closest rads would only have them cracked open a little. This stops all the water taking the shortest route and not heating the rest of the radiators.

Try closing that valve and then opening one turn, and see if the problematic radiator starts heating.

The whooshing noise is probably just because you’ve closed off all the TRV’s (opposite side to the lockshield) and you can hear the sheer volume of water pumping through the one remaining radiator. By closing all the other TRV’s, you’ve done the same thing as closing the lockshields, therefore encouraging the water to take a longer route through the problematic rad.

Right ok,

So I bled the radiators whilst they were cold and also adjusted the lockshield on the one one he removed/refitted as it was fully out.

The rads all seem to be working ok now

Thanks for all the input.

Steve