Any plumbers own a wedge
Discussion
wedg1e said:
I'm not a plumber per se, but I don't struggle... what's up?
In my infinite wisdom I have decided to add a heated towel rail to the heating system for the bathroom. As there is no radiator in the bathroom (and yes it's cold in here
) So I thought a heated towel rail would at least provide some heat, plus not really any suitable wall for rad as very small bathroom So anyway looking in my old 1970 diy guides it appears a rad has a feed and a return to and from each rad ?
So going on that info I use a rad next to the bathroom and t into each pipe, (return and feed) plumb up to the towel rail (matching the valve to the pipe feeding the valve on the existing rad), refill the system and start to bleed the rads.
This is where my probs seem to be, it seems to take forever for the downstairs rads to get to any temp and the only way to get heat seems to bleed the water through until I can start to feel heat in the pipes going down the wall, it also did this when I had to remove and refit the rad to replaster the living and bedroom
So I suppose 1 question could be do you add the towel rail in series (along one pipe) or in parallel as I think I have done ?
alex290568 said:
Have you bled the highest bleed valve in the property? I had a similar problem and when I finally called a plumber out there was a bleed tap in my loft, no where near any rads. System was airlocked, released air and bingo.
Not been up there, but I did bleed the valve by the pump, might have a look in the loft tomorrow though just to make sure.
It's strange as once they are hot then the next time the heating comes on then they seem to get hot fairly quickly
Aye, sounds like it's airlocked. If the system is really old then it could be a 'one-pipe' system where each end of each rad is connected to the same pipe. My parents' house has a similar setup.... most often nowadays is 2-pipe where you have flow and return to each rad, more efficient in terms of flow, heat transfer, generating lotto numbers etc etc. Generally better 
If you have a combi, try letting the pressure gauge get about 0.5-1 Bar higher than it'd normally run, this gives you a bit of extra welly to blow any air out.
If you have a combi, try letting the pressure gauge get about 0.5-1 Bar higher than it'd normally run, this gives you a bit of extra welly to blow any air out.
wedg1e said:
Aye, sounds like it's airlocked. If the system is really old then it could be a 'one-pipe' system where each end of each rad is connected to the same pipe. My parents' house has a similar setup.... most often nowadays is 2-pipe where you have flow and return to each rad, more efficient in terms of flow, heat transfer, generating lotto numbers etc etc. Generally better
If you have a combi, try letting the pressure gauge get about 0.5-1 Bar higher than it'd normally run, this gives you a bit of extra welly to blow any air out.
If you have a combi, try letting the pressure gauge get about 0.5-1 Bar higher than it'd normally run, this gives you a bit of extra welly to blow any air out.
Think I have a 2 pipe flow and return as probably only a few years old with a condensor boiler, so will have to go to loft tomorrow and check if any other falve by the overflow tank
Opened one of the drain valves downstairs and a lot more air came out than I would expect so sl;owly getting there. time for another beer me thinks
Had similar problems myself in an old house. The boiler was in the kitchen but the tank and pump were in the loft. Whenever I did any work on the system and it needed draining it took forever to try and bleed the system. Leaving it overnight sometimes helped to release the airlock. I won't say what the other solution was, as it was slightly dangerous and not recommended.
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