Some radiators not working !??

[Jazz12]

aibu to think it’s the fcuking boiler??

4 radiators in the house (all furthest from the boiler) have stopped working. These were working fine until a few days ago.

1. the pipes under them are cold
2. turning off all other radiators isn’t helping
3. no trapped air, we bled all of them.
4. a couple of radiators are working even after turning them off (using tuning thing at the bottom)

Anything else I can try before I call someone ? Could it be the boiler? Frozen pipes? (They are all on the outside wall) I’m surprised 4 radiators stopped working at the same time?!

Yes, we turned them all on later. Pipes under the cold radiators are all cold regardless.

Hi. The dirt (if) didn’t occur in 4 rads all at once. It dislodged from somewhere met other bits & settled at the lowest point, unfortunately that’s how it works. It just can’t get any further. Are the inlet & return on dead rads cold or just one side

Open every rad stat & lockshield fully.
run heatimg
it just might work.
don’t forget, the water is going through a very narrow hole in the rad stat, a lot of dirt can cripple the rad

You say you had valves replaced, just doing that may have been the start. They all worked after the install until the bits moved & are now stuck Do you have a magnet on the. boiler

Just read that rads now dead are furthest away from boiler that is beginning to me to look like dirt has moved to that point & now needs to be shifted
Re opening your lockshields might require one of the following if they have not got hand units on them (like the stat side)
Allen key or pliers or screw driver 🤞. The rads are working to a point so the divert valve is ok.

Google lockshield valves for the various types . apologise if you are aware of them .

Just another thought. The header tank in loft has got full water in it ? They can freeze. Had the experience, not good

Pipes cold on both sides of all 4 cold radiators :(

how many rads have u got.

9 radiators in total.

That’s a good point 🤔

We have hot water, does that mean it’s ok?

or should there be another tank in the loft for boiler pressure ?

Just done this. Thank you. Is it worth replacing them even if the pipes under the radiators are cold? Cold pipes sound to me like the hot water is not even reaching the radiators.

I tried moving the little sticks in both the two way valves near the pump, one has a bit of resistance (a spring like thing perhaps inside?). The stick in the other valve feels more free. Does that mean it’s perhaps broken?

The tank in loft feeds the boiler no other tank up there. Your hot water comes from airing cupboard cylinder. Presu that’s where it is. You have got hot water from taps👍 you are somewhat getting flow around heating pipes👍it’s stopping between going out & coming back 😾. There is one drastic way of clearing sludge. Open every tap both sides of rad. Turn room stat up max turn boilet temp up max. It’s a long shot. It did work 4 me. The pressure sometimes dislodges the trouble. 🤞🤞

Long shot here…,. Are all your heating pipes under floor boards or surface mounted Got a feeling I already know the answer, but I could b wrong

Re the little flags on diverter boxes. The one that is not offering resistance turn hot tap on ‘ c weather it moves

One end of the radiator is the thermostatic value (big with the numbers on ) or older systems, just a knob you can grip with arrows on top indicating on/off or warm/cold.
the other end is the lockshield valve. Usually covered by a plastic dome/cap.
if you pull, prise the dome/cap off you’ll see a flat sided top of the metal ‘rod’ which descends into the valve.
you’ll need pliers or grips to turn it.
if you have the older system, you can pull the knobs off the other end and use that to turn the lockshield.
anyway. On the radiators that are working, turn the lockshield valve clockwise to close it, counting the turns as you do. Do that for each radiator that usually gets hot.
on the radiators that are staying cold, also close the lockshield valves again counting the turns, make a note of the turns for all radiators.
now before you put the heating on, open the lockshield valves a full turn for each of the normally cold radiators.
put the heating on.

let us now if the normally cold radiators now warm up proper after an hour.

Now/know

They are under the floorboards. Just two bits sticking out on both ends.

No water tanks in the cupboard upstairs. Just the pump, pipes and valves in there.

I know there is a big water tank in the loft, don’t know if there are two. I can go and check if you’d like me to.

Is this called rebalancing radiators. We did this yesterday, it didn’t work. BUT, we didn’t leave it that way the whole hour. We checked the pipes of cold radiators after 10mins, they were still cold, so we gave up.

Is worth trying again, leaving it alone for a full hour this time?

Have you checked all radiators for air locks - use a bleeding key and check each one in turn until all the air is removed - I do this every year and a couple of ours are full of air every autumn.

This has happened to mine too! The top ones aren't working, but now the cold is spreading down the house!

A plumber was meant to be coming to fix mine today but can't get here because of the snow. The central heating people said it can't be the boiler because some of the radiators are working and so is the hot water.

So basically you turn all of the lockshield valves off before turning the cold radiators back on again? @tanstaafl why do you count the number of turns?

Not rebalancing yet, just making a note of how many turns the lockshield valv takes to close on each radiator for now ( so if nothing else, you can set them back how they were ).

what this exercise is about is shutting off the working radiators and ensuring water can flow through the not working radiators.

if they get warm then it could be a rebalancing is required or the water pump needs turning up ( do you have a hot water tank system or a combi boiler type system )

Ok, will do this.
we have a water tank system.