Rads intermittently working and making lots of noise

[ElfontheShelfIsWATCHINGYOUTOO]

Hello!

Not sure if anyone can advise....I know its so boring....of course as ever with the onset of the coldest night of year our rads down stairs have stopped working, I do not know its connected but my DH was letting water out of a down stairs one to stop an over flow leak in the attic, he did this for months. the leak is fixed up stairs so he doesnt let the water anymore, but when heating went on the rads downstairs usually do not come on, but they do upstairs . also i dont know if its connected but the whole system MASSVILY makes noise when it comes on. its all about 7/8 years old and never used to make such incredible noise.

any ideas? many thanks if so....

time to go round and bleed them one by one
twice a day till they are all full of nice hot water again

as talkinpeace says sounds like they need bled properly. go to the radiators which don't get hot and let the air out of them - make sure you don't let the system run out of water when your bleeding them or you will need to start again.

if there has been a long-term leak and they have needed bleeding, I expect they are rusty and corroded inside.

Is the boiler banging? What sort of noise do you mean?

Has your boiler got a pressure gauge on it, or is there a small feed and expansion tank in the loft?

If some rads are hot and some are cold, turn off the hot ones and see if the cold ones warm up.

The leak was from our over flow pipe due to wrong balance thing in tank or old one....so to stop outside over flow husband was draining it every day from rads...until kind brother stepped in and for £20 got us a new balance thing upstairs

so thats un related - the leak just wondering if it has messed it up somehow....

not sure piglet...will have a look.

If it was overflowing from the feed and expanion tank, and if water was being bled out of the radiators, then the effect will have been that (1) any corrosion inhibitor previously present will have been washed away and (2) fresh, aerated water has been added to the system.

The radiators, being made of steel, quickly rust on the insides in the presence of water and air.

Oh dear, there is rust on the outside of the one he used to bleed.

what can we do about that Piglet John?

is the boiler making a banging noise? or what sort of noise are you hearing?

for a start, the system needs to be cleaned out. If you are fond of DIY plumbing, a simple chemical clean wil help, and might or might not be enough. If you are not fond of DIY plumbing, you will have to pay a pro, who will probably do a powerflush which is quicker. Done properly it will take at least half a day. Preferably a system filter should be fitted to trap any circulating particles before they can form a blockage.

Depending on how bad the rust is, some or all the radiators may start to leak, usually on the bottom seams where rusted through. An intensive or aggressive clean may start off leaks through holes that are presently plugged with dirt, scale and rust. A pro will insist that you accept this risk before he starts work. Bad radiators will have to be replaced with new.

Rust, sludge and sediment can also cause blockages in the boiler, and the particles will accelerate wear of the pump bearings. Any heating engineer will have seen it before.

we might have this problem too. is it possible to change the rads one by one instead of all at the same time?

how does microbore factor into it? would the whole system need replacing or can we do bit by bit?

sorry for the hijack!

microbore is rubbish. chuck it out and replace with 22mm/15mm

it would be possible to replace one at a time, if you wanted five times the effort and five times the cost.

dare I ask how much it might be to do the whole lot - 13 rads in a five bedroom house? all the rads would need to be doubled in size too. would the boiler have to be redone as well?

arg!

Piglet wow thanks for your advice, how do we put a chemical clean through the system? Are rads are new for rads....only 8 or so years.

the ones upstairs work, the boiler - the bit with the flame in the kicten round there is a sort of clicking noise, my DSIS said it was the pipes expanding and contracting when heating goes on.

the tank in a cupboard in the bathroom, all round there lots of cloicking too.

DH did some beelding he said last week and they all seemed to work down stairs as well bar one. all upstairs working gfine

has the boiler got a pressure gauge, or is there a feed and expansion tank in the loft?

does the boiler "sing" like an old kettle coming to the boil? Or does it bang and clonk?

Hello

WANTED TO report back in case anyone knew what on earth is going on. DH turned off the working rads upstairs. The downstairs rads did not come on.

However the next day, when the all the rads were turned back on, they have all come back on.

Also, now the heating has come back on properly, I can hear the normal, more gentle clicking of the rads expanding.

This is defiantly not the loud - extremely loud knocking and clanking before, when only the upstairs ones were coming on.

PJ I am sorry, neither DH nor I know how to look for pressure gage or what it is .

The good news is, they are back on!!!!! Just as I was dreading coming back to a cold house yesterday.
The bad news is, they did come on before after he fiddled round and then stopped. Whether its just coincidence or he is actually doing something effective I dont know.

oh we have an update too -9our handy plumber came round and fiddled with them. I dont know what he did tbh - he kept mentioning valves and breaking off the knobs on the non adjustable side. they are all but one working now and a lot hotter - and importantly the one in the hall that was totally kaput works which has improved the heat flow around the whole house.

£90 well spent.

he reckons we could replace a couple to make them bigger to pump out more heat but more than that might be too much for the boiler.

Poo

how old are your rads? ours were all replaced only 7 years ago.....did you see what he did?

I would happily get handy plumber in, but was ripped off the last time had one in, and he was quite scary too.