- Turn off the heat
- Protect the floor with
cloths and have a spanner or pliers, a wrench and a few bowls ready
- Close the valves at each end
of the radiator and remove the plastic shield from the ‘lockshield valve',
closing it with the spanner or pliers.
- Open the bleed valve near
the top of the radiator to allow water to escape. If water keeps running the
other valves are not closed properly.
- Use the bowls to catch any
water and undo the nuts holding the radiator to the valves on each end.
You’ll need to do this slowly.
- Ask someone to help lift the
radiator from its brackets
- Drain any remaining water
into the bowl
- With the radiator upright,
carry it outside
- Stand the radiator on its
end, flush out the sludge with a hosepipe before bringing it back in
- Checking the brackets are
secure, place the radiator back on the wall and reconnect the nuts
- Open the valves to fill the
radiator, then open the bleed valve to allow air to escape and reset the
lockshield valve.
Only the upstairs radiators are
cold
This may well mean the cistern in
your loft has run dry, because of a jammed or obstructed ball valve. To fix the
cistern:
- Clear any obstruction or
worn parts
- Check there is enough water
to make the ball float when the system is cold.
Only downstairs radiators are
cold
It is likely that the pump
is broken. You’ll need to call out an heating engineer.
Radiators are cooler in one area
of the house
This suggests the system is
unbalanced. To balance it, you need a pair of radiator thermometers and then:
- Turn off the heat, allowing
the system to cool
- Turn on the valves at each
end of every radiator, remove the lockshield valve’s plastic cover and turn
it using pliers
- Turn the heating back on,
checking the order in which the radiators heat up
- Starting with the first
radiator, place a thermometer on the pipe at both ends
- Turn off the lockshield
valve and gradually turn it back on until there’s almost no difference
between the two thermometers
- Repeat on the second
radiator and every radiator in turn; when you've finished you'll have a
balanced system.
Radiators are warm upstairs when
the heating is off, and the hot water is on
If you have a gravity-fed
system, the check valve is broken. You will need to call out an heating engineer.
There’s no heating or hot water
These checks may help you fix the
problem:
- Check your power supply is
working and a fuse hasn't blown
- Check the gas hasn't been
turned off or you have enough oil in your tank
- Check your thermostats and
control switches are turned on
- Check the pump is running
- Check the pilot light is
lit, your boiler manual will tell you how to relight it
If none of this works,
you'll need to call a heating engineer
There’s a sound of gurgling
water
This probably means there's air
in the system and the radiator needs ‘bleeding'.
I can hear humming
The pump usually causes these
noises. These steps should solve the problem:
- Lower the setting on the
pump
- Fit the pump on the brackets
that absorb its vibrations
- Check the pipes are
the right size, to do this you may need to get in an NGH heating engineer
I can hear knocks and creaking
As pipes expand and contract they
rub against joists and walls causing strange noises. To prevent these sounds:
- Find out where the noise is
coming from
- Establish where the pipes
are rubbing or don't have enough space
- Widen the space around the
pipe carefully using a saw or chisel. Too much space might weaken the pipe
- You could use fibreglass
insulation to cover the pipes
- In some cases noise can come
from unsupported pipes - so secure pipes with a lot of free movement using
pipe clips
