Impecunious Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hello, I'm on here for advice please. Our plumber was John Lister and he was brilliant at helping us out with any problems we had...now I'm hoping someone on here can offer advice instead please... John fitted a brand new baxi boiler and new radiators for us in 2008. All the upstairs radiators are working fine but the downstairs one is cold along the bottom and only luke warm at the top. We've been having problems with it for a while. I've tried bleeding it a couple of times but no air comes out - just fishy smelling black water. I've googled the problem and on another forum I've read that that this is likely to be a build up of sludge in the radiator (common in ground floor radiators apparently). The advice is to remove the radiator, take it out into the garden and blast it through with a hose. Then add an inhibitor to prevent the same happening again. Does this sound like the correct course of action before carting a 6 foot radiator outside and up the steep garden steps?! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHYTOT Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hello, I'm on here for advice please. Our plumber was John Lister and he was brilliant at helping us out with any problems we had...now I'm hoping someone on here can offer advice instead please... John fitted a brand new baxi boiler and new radiators for us in 2008. All the upstairs radiators are working fine but the downstairs one is cold along the bottom and only luke warm at the top. We've been having problems with it for a while. I've tried bleeding it a couple of times but no air comes out - just fishy smelling black water. I've googled the problem and on another forum I've read that that this is likely to be a build up of sludge in the radiator (common in ground floor radiators apparently). The advice is to remove the radiator, take it out into the garden and blast it through with a hose. Then add an inhibitor to prevent the same happening again. Does this sound like the correct course of action before carting a 6 foot radiator outside and up the steep garden steps?! Thanks! Before you do that I would try this. Turn off all other radiators but open up the one that is cold fully at both ends. Put the full flow through by turning the CE pump up to max. assuming your heating engineer did things right, I think if you had a new boiler fitted recently it is unlikely that the system will have gunged up that quickly. If that does the trick and things return to normal, drain off a couple of pints of water and stick an inhibitor in an upstairs radiator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Impecunious Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 Before you do that I would try this. assuming your heating engineer did things right, I think if you had a new boiler fitted recently it is unlikely that the system will have gunged up that quickly. Even with the water being black and smelling of fish? It made me heave! Lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cloudsailors Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I'd suggest turning off all rads (at both ends) then opening them all up the same amount of turns, say 3 turns... then set the thermo ends and fire the boiler back up... i believe it's called Balancing.. and though i'm not sure if it's the solution at least all rads will be under the same pressure so the flow will be equal to all... it can only help. worth a shot methinks. good luck:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haggis Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 to balance a central heating system open all radiator valves (the system is cold) turn on the heating with the room stat up to full then go around feeling the radiators to see which one becomes warmest first close it then open it one and a half turns next rad to become warm close then open one and three quarter turns ect all around the house the system should then be fairly well balanced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan2802 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I cant see that balancing is your problem given your description. Sound like sludge in the bottom of the rad (as you suspect). You could try draining and flushing the rad, if that doesnt work you may need the whole system flushing. Try flushing the effected rad first as its the cheapest/easiest option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I cant see that balancing is your problem given your description. Sound like sludge in the bottom of the rad (as you suspect). You could try draining and flushing the rad, if that doesnt work you may need the whole system flushing. Try flushing the effected rad first as its the cheapest/easiest option. Agree with Dan. May help to have one of these fitted once you've cleared your problem. http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&biw=1280&bih=709&q=magnaclean&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2837517104199464475&ei=7ntkTYagDsyFhQf_tpWKBw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEkQ8wIwAg# Is the boiler a sealed system? I'm getting the impression that if it's a combi and it's under pressure you must be losing water and have to keep topping up? A clear indication of Black water is air in the system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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