Question about sealed heating system

[princeperch]

I went next door to try and help a neighbour out today to no avail

He went upstairs and bled an old radiator in his kids bedroom. He completely fked this up because not only did he drain a significant amount of water out of the radiator he also lost the bleed valve screw when doing so

He called me and said can I help him pressure up the system so I said sure. I opened both sides of the internal filling loop and nothing happened. I said to him are you sure you closed off the radiator you bled off. He said yes. I went upstairs and saw the radiator had no bleed screw on the right hand side so little wonder it wouldn't pressure up. He can't find the screw so it's presumably been lost or chucked out with the water.

We closed off that radiator from the system using the flow and return but the system still won't pressure up. Am I correct that this is because whilst that radiator is closed off from the system, the system isn't adequately sealed so we are wasting our time until he gets the imperial bleed valve screw delivered by Amazon prime on the 27th? All the radiators on the ground floor held water and didn't bleed any air.

Alternatively he can obviously pay a plumber £300 or whatever it'll cost to deal with it tomorrow

Happy Xmas etc!

Any thoughts appreciated.

[pghstochaj]

princeperch said:

I went next door to try and help a neighbour out today to no avail

He went upstairs and bled an old radiator in his kids bedroom. He completely fked this up because not only did he drain a significant amount of water out of the radiator he also lost the bleed valve screw when doing so

He called me and said can I help him pressure up the system so I said sure. I opened both sides of the internal filling loop and nothing happened. I said to him are you sure you closed off the radiator you bled off. He said yes. I went upstairs and saw the radiator had no bleed screw on the right hand side so little wonder it wouldn't pressure up. He can't find the screw so it's presumably been lost or chucked out with the water.

We closed off that radiator from the system using the flow and return but the system still won't pressure up. Am I correct that this is because whilst that radiator is closed off from the system, the system isn't adequately sealed so we are wasting our time until he gets the imperial bleed valve screw delivered by Amazon prime on the 27th? All the radiators on the ground floor held water and didn't bleed any air.

Alternatively he can obviously pay a plumber £300 or whatever it'll cost to deal with it tomorrow

Happy Xmas etc!

Any thoughts appreciated.

No, something is not right. If you had an open bleed valve and added water to the system, it would just pour out of the bleed valve. The pressure would only be the hydrostatic pressure between the top of the system and the pressure measurement point.

If you isolated the radiator then you would be able to pressurise it as normal.

My guess is that you weren’t filling the system for some reason.

[hidetheelephants]

The bleed screw will be safely in the bottle trap under whatever sink he emptied the water into, unless he tipped it down the stter and flushed.

[Andeh1]

Did you hear the water flow when you opened up the valves? It's usually pretty clearly audible when the water starts rushing into the system!

[GasEngineer]

Check the valves on the filling loop. Sometimes the plastic handle turns but doesn't move the valve.

Also try removing one end of the filling loop hose and try opening the valve into a container to check it is actually flowing.

[princeperch]

Happy Christmas all

So when we turned the filling loop brass connections nothing happened apart from a little water dripping from the second brass fitting. After fiddling about with the red plastic knob on very left we saw the guage move a bit and heard water going into the system. But after a few mins the guage still didn't move. All the rads on the ground floor had water in them and no air.

All a bit odd really. Perhaps the filling loop is blocked?

[Xcore]

I’m betting the gauge is knackard if you can hear water passing through the filling loop. Give it a tap.

[Frane Selak]

when you say you opened one side of the filling loop did you actually check you opened it and not close it, normally one side if a one way valve that stays in the open position and you only have to open the tap end.

[119]

To be sure they are open, both loop valves should be in line with the hose when in the open position and not ninety degrees as far as im aware.