Putting radiator back after a wall skim

[Sabotaj]

Hi all

I took the living room radiator off yestaday morning prior to the plasterer coming, I was under the impression that I did do this properly, although I did have quite a few bowls of water collected while draining the rad some.

Anyway today, I thought I'd put the radiator back on its brackets and connect it back up, only when I turn the central heating on, none of the rads get warm. I'm starting to think I might of drained the system or something... but I can't see this as I had the right side closed off.

This is how I took the rad off the wall: -

* Pipes come in from the right side of the rad, so I closed the valve on the right side first.

* Then there is a pipe that goes under the rad into the left side. This is where I unscrewed slightly to drain into a bowl ( am i right so far? ). I continued this procedure until no more water was coming out.

* Took the rad off the wall.


Is this something that a plumber needs to fix or can I easily sort this out?



Cheers

Gavin

[Flipper]

You would nornally close off both valves before undoing the nuts to drain the rad. If you have a closed heating circuit you will need to open the filling loop to fill the system again.

[michaelbinks]

you may also want to open the open the air bleed value (top corner of rad) after filling to ensure you get all of the air out of the radiator.

Solving problems with heating and hot water 1 | Diy Fix It

you will need a special tool, couple of quid from diy shop.

[Geezer69]

Agree with the above - you need to close off both ends of the rad before draining. Even then, after refilling the rad I always go round and bleed all the rads just to make sure any air is out and then build up the pressure again on the combi boiler.

[Sabotaj]

Ok, I've bled the radiator that I took off, alot of air came out. I also bled the rest of the house. Now I have two out of three rooms upstairs getting warm, while the rest are still cold.

Any ideas?

[021C]

As mentioned above. Have you re pressurised the system? You don't mention what kind of boiler you have so I'll assume it's a combi. Check to see if you have enough pressure, if not use the filling loop.

[Sabotaj]

Hi there

Nope it's not a combi boiler, rather an conventional boiler. The main tank is in a cupboard upstairs. Above the boiler is two smaller tanks which I'm guessing holds cold water and the other being an overflow of some type. Has a ballcock in I know that

[KelvinS1965]

Has the small header tank got any water in it? If you haven't drained the system down for some time, maybe the ballcock has stuck or the stopcock feeding it has been turned off for some reason?

I have a combi now myself, but when I had my previous boiler I found I had to make sure I bled the downstairs rads first, then the upstairs (and the tallest rad in the bathroom was last as it always had a bit of air left in it). You'll need to make sure the rad valves are both open to do this and if you have thermostatic valves, just turn them up full while you bleed the rads, put them back to their usual setting afterwards. It's best to do the bleeding with the boiler off (ie not pumping water round, so just turn the room stat right down while you do the bleeding).

Hope that helps.....not the best time of year to have cold rads.