Bleeding a radiator?

[mogs0]

Does anyone know how? The radiator in my room is warm-ish at the bottom near the pipes and pretty cold at the top. Do they need bleeding? If so, how? My room is like a fridge at the moment!!

get your radiator key and then loosen the nut at one end
you hear the air escaping and then do it up before the water comes out

you need a key for the valve which is in the end at the top (if you have radiators like mine), you then turn the key and usually filthy water squirts out up your walls/curtains. so a good idea to have a cloth/bowl handy. Best to do it when they are cold too.

HTH

Thanks for the quick replies!! I shall go and hunt for a key......

ER - no chance of them being anything other than cold at the moment!!!

instructions here

If it is cold at the top and warm at the bottom, it needs bleeding.

Bleed all of the upstairs ones at the same time.

moshie - that's a great site, I've saved to faves!!

When I locate a key I shall do them all!!

Thank you, wonderful MNers!!!

I have successfully bled (?) my bedroom radiator!! It hissed for quite a while but is now roasting hot. I also managed to top up the water without flooding my house which is a fabulous result.

I did the other 2 radiators upstairs and am just waiting for the third to heat up. Does it normally take a while for them to warm up? It's in ds' room and I haven't checked it before because his room is always comfortable so had no reason to think it wasn't working fine.

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! My second attempt at odd-jobs successfully completed by myself (well, with a little help from MN! )

be careful, i always manage to break the boiler when i bleed radiators.

Oh, I hope I haven't broken it, my landlady just spent £3000 on a new one!! How did you break it?

Oh arse! I can't get the heating to come on!!! It's been on since I messed with the radiators but now it won't work! See what happens when I try and do it myself?!! Help please!

Check the pressure. It may have dropped because you have released air from the system. If it's less than 1 bar then top it up.

gas boiler? the heating not you

and is it still lit?

ah yeah - and is it a combi?

it always happens to me

Yes, I checked the pressure and topped it up to the green section.

Yes, it's a gas boiler (and yes, I feel like a bloody gas boiler!!), yes it's still lit and yes, it's a combi!

mine's a combi too, i just leave my radiator cold now, plumber bleeds it, works then packs up.

but why does it do that?

diynot is a good site if you want to drive yourself mad, before you give up and call a plumber

i don't know, probably need a new radiator

My BIL is a plumber and I called him but he wasn't too interested!! Surely phoning up at 9pm on a Sunday is a perk of having a BIL plumber?!!! He didn't think so and said he couldn't do anything without looking at it.

assuming no leaks in the system, then the pump can cause air bubbles as they tend to run on flat out. this builds up in the first radiator after the pump/tank depending on system - so you have to keep bleeding it. mine does it.

if thermostat and programmer set ok then it should be working?

what make boiler is it?

Do I need to bleed the all 3 radiators again?

what make boiler is it? erm........not sure and am too lazy cold to get up and check.

Will try bleeding it again tomorrow. I've left it too late to so it now, hope it's not freezing in the morning!!

I did the radiators again last night and topped up the pressure some more. I'm not sure which did it but it's working fine again now! Infact, the boiler sounds a lot quieter too!!