Cast iron radiators leaking advice

[AshleyMay]

Please help! DP and I completely refurbished our lovely Victorian terrace ~5 years ago and installed these beautiful radiators from Carron www.carron.uk.net/carron-radiator-ranges throughout the whole house. Total new heating system cost almost £20k. I wanted them and pushed for them over the steel tubular versions. The cast iron ones cost a fortune but I love the way they look and it felt justified when I was told they would 'last a lifetime'. Sadly most of them are leaking now at the junctions between sections, drips staining carpets & tiles etc. We've had water & protector checked every year with boiler service & they come with a 10 year warranty so covered but turns out buried in T&Cs we have to uninstall them ourselves. Original plumber came out to look and advised 'it will cost over £1000' in labour just to remove them! And at least double that to reinstall replacements, which might leak again in 5 years Has anyone else got these radiators? Driving me mad but have to deal with it this Summer as will only get worse. Think I might just sell the lot on Gumtree, have lost faith in the company and they're so unbelievably heavy

Sounds like a manufacturing defect, push for them to pay the extra losses, the publicity might encourage them to provide better service.
Although 1k labour to remove rads in a Victorian terrace is crazy, that's not going to take 4 days+ is it? Maybe it's a two person job lifting them? Or maybe he doesn't want the job.
Install a rad you have to set up the brackets and pipe work but remove is just drain the system, isolate both ends, unbolt, and lift off the wall. If they are heavy then maybe lifting would be the hard bit.

Surely it must be some kind of manufacturing problem? We had radiators like this in our old flat which were 90 years old and still weren't leaking, even once we took them off to do some building work and reinstall them... We also had them in our current house - 40 years old - and they were working fine - no leaks or anything.

On a side note, we just ripped them out of our house and replaced them with modern ones and the difference in the heat they give off is insane! Plumber told me that modern radiators convect heat much better than the old cast iron ones, and I fully agree. It's cut our heating bills already....

Thanks John they're incredibly heavy - one of them weighs almost half a tonne apparently! Plumber says will need 4 men for the day, wouldn't surprise me.

Amy did you miss the look of your old radiators? You don't really see them I suppose with furniture in the room. Sad to see them go though. If anyone has had modern cast iron radiators and has seen this problem please LMK.

I don't miss them at all. Yes initially it maybe doesn't look quite as good, but as a perpetually cold person, I'll take warmth over appearance any day.

Yes, we have the same problem, cast iron reproduction radiators installed only 18 months ago & now leaking! It looks as though these companies are getting away with selling faulty goods. We had original casts (which were a fraction of the price because we cleaned them up ourselves) in our previous place with no issues whatsoever after 13 years.

We’ve just had ours in a year, did a complete revolution got 13 last month 6 of them were replaced as showed signs of leaking ... we had to pay the plumber £475 .. now I’ve noticed others look like they have started showing damage on rib joins .. it’s so annoying obviously poor quality I git mine from the cast iron radiator centre .. they looked great at first 😭

Yeah, we decided to rip them out & replace with standard radiators in the end. New ones don't Make a statement; however you don't notice them after a while & we have piece of mind- no more worrying about leaks!

We have reproduction cast iron radiators in most rooms so checked them over this weekend. They're all warm and none of them feel wet, although quite a few of the rubber seals have stuff that looks like white mould coming out them?
We've stone and hardwood floors downstairs and "vanilla milkshake" wool carpets everywhere upstairs... really don't want those stained, so wondering should I put cling film down? Did you really have no other option than just ripping them out Clrcarter? 😟

Hi, thats how the issues with ours started, a white crust residue build up. This then deteriorates the rubber & the gaskets/joints start leaking. We thought about it carefully- could’ve liaised with the company to uninstall, send back, recondition & then reinstall; however, we were not convinced that in a year or so it would happen AGAIN. Didn't want to go through the stress & upset again. We were lucky, managed to get a refund for the radiators (i hear many don't). So, thought we’d cut our losses of the cost of the plumber & get rid of them.

Oh dear this is upsetting to read. Thank you though for the explanation and well done getting a refund... it sounds like this could be a widespread problem then?
Unfortunately the developer installed ours before we bought the property, so I doubt we would be able to get anything back 😞

Good cast iron radiators last a lifetime, the ones with rubber gaskets are chinese low quality castings, don't get fooled by stories about ph-levels and other excuses by the companies that sold/sell them.

Period House Store supplied our cast iron radiators and like others here they are now leaking at the gaskets. In total we spent thousands. The manufacturer does offer a fix, although nobody can guarantee that they won't leak again and you do have to pay plumbing costs every time so a big gamble. Interestingly, Carron do say that the leaks are caused by the water pH and so it seems they basically blame the customer. We have got quite hard water but we never had issues with any radiators before we fit these.

Leave a review on google and see if they get back to you and comment on the companies social media . I would wait until summer to remove them and try a few other plumbers . I've never had a problem with mine leaking they have no gaskets just sections bolted together and the shouldn't leak in the joints if done properly . check for small pin holes near by and see if they are leaking elsewhere and running onto the joints it quite common for new cast iron ones to spring a leak I would suspect who ever made them up didn't tighten then up correctly or used he correct sealants .

The crust and dampness is definitely coming from the rubber seals. The iron itself looks ok. Henryloveseatinglego are your radiators modern reproduction ones or old original ones?

Reclaimed old and they don't have seals and if correct sealant is applied the shouldn't leak at all tried and tested design for over hundred years . they usually seal themselves over time with rust but if a seal is used its a bad idea and a point of failure .all rubber will perish over time and I can see why they would put seals in to make so they can be take apart ? . its ether a production fault or product failure of the rubber seals .I would keep on at them . I really can't see that they are repairable or they would be able to disassemble them after a few year .

I agree Henryloveseatinglego all this is best left to the Summer. Period House Store just pass the problem on to Carron who will rebuild them with new seals which are somehow upgraded from what I can gather. But we're in the same situation as Clrcarter was and will have to arrange uninstall, send back, wait for recondition without hot water and then reinstall. Carron's position appears to be "although you got the pH wrong which caused this, we will graciously fix the problem". As if we all check heating water pH 😬 and like Clrcarter we're not convinced that in a year or two this won't happen again. Thankfully our plumbers will do the heavy lifting "at cost" but it is still a four man job so without doubt hundreds or thousands more which the Carron guarantee explicitly rules out covering.. like they knew this might happen. I've no doubt others are in the same boat, for example:
uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.periodhousestore.co.uk
Causing lots of stress at home, a scandal really albeit a very middle-class one 🤦‍♀️ because LBH who really needs heating from the 19th century...

The pH shouldn't affect the seal its more like they never bother to test the seals for product conflict with possibility of the water PH may cause to seal to rot . all rubber and synthetic seal are not the same .I would say its probably heat a constant expansion and contraction causing the failure of the seals. original cast irons radiators didn't bother with rubber seals they just used paint or similar product during assembly. Million of radiators were produced and are still working hundred + years later regardless of the PH . they seriously need to step back in time a learn from the past techniques . Its a inappropriate use of a product that's bound to fail unless they want it to fail the majority of these radiators didn't fail in the past .
Trading standards or small claims courts .copy the form from the court service website out send a copy and ask them to fill in the defendant details and ask them to return it you .this usual works well . or try the institute of plumbers or simialr body and commission a report on the appropriate use of seal and reason for failure in the product and
Comparison to original construction of cast iron radiators .

How many radiators do you have @AshleyMay? If you have leaks from the section joins, then that is nothing more than a manufacturing fault and removal, repair and replacement should be all down to the supplier/manufacturer. Water oh shouldn't be having an effect on your radiators either, as I imagine that you are having the inhibitor in your system regularly topped up? All sounds to me like there is some serious ducking of responsibility.

Yes agree if the seals are affect by the type of inhibitor in the system then then all the rubber seals would leak in the boilers . they don't it down to the manufacturer to make sure they are suitable and installed correctly and manufacturer correctly can see why seals are even needed in this type radiator

The ones that were not replaced last year now need replacing I'm thinking of just getting ordinary radiators it's so bad these companies can just sell rubbish not fit for purpose items like this

I’m so glad I’ve read this, we have been looking at getting these in our new place and now I’m having second thoughts! Has anyone any experience with the Paladin cast iron radiators?

A year and a pandemic later, all our Carron radiators are now dripping in to saucers. We've been looking at alternatives, have had a look at Castrads and Trads websites but will probably go steel if you can perhaps recommend any?