Can anyone help me i have a cold radiator upstairs can anyone help, a plumber maybe.?
First job bleed the air from the radiator. The little brass keys are sold in all DIY stores. You will see a small square headed screw in one of the top corners of the rad. With the CH off unscrew it a couple of turns anti clockwise (don’t remove it) holding a cup under to catch water. You will hear the air hissing out. When only water flows, turn the bleed screw clockwise to shut it. If you don’t get air or water, the small tank in the loft will need a look at as the ball valves stick sometimes. A wiggle of the ball and brass arm will cure it. If this doesn’t cure it, make sure both valves are wide open Open the ordinary valve by hand, again anti clockwise. Open the other (lockshield) valve with an adjustable spanner. This should increase the flow through the radiator. Upstairs rads normally respond immediately to this because hot water rises naturally.
This is most often an indication that the feed and expansion cistern in the loft has run dry. This should not happen and indicates another problem which needs to be sorted. It’s probable that the ball valve is not operating correctly. It may have jammed or be obstructed. Clear any obstruction or replace worn parts. Remember when refilling and adjusting the ball valve that there must be enough room for the water to expand when the system heats up. Therefore, when the system is cold, there should be just enough water to make the ball to float and switch off the water coming in.
If it’s cold when the heating is on then it probably just needs bleeding. This is a very simple process; if you look on the side of the top of the radiator there is a bulgy bit that has a hole with a square-ish bit of metal in the middle. You need a radiator key (pick one up from any hardware shop), insert it into this hole and gradually turn it until you hear air hissing out. When the air stops coming out (water will start dripping out if you leave it too long) then turn it back the other way and the radiator will work fine again.
It is probably true that you will need to bleed the radiator, See if the bottom half of the radiator is warm or the pipes leading up to it? if they are warm then bleeding will probably help. If you have a combi boiler, when you bleed the radiator the pressure in the system will drop, unless it has an automatic feed So once you have opened the air valve air will come out until water does, or until the pressure has dropped to low. Once you have bled the radiator and closed the valve again, have a look at your boiler and see if it has a pressure dial on it. If it has dropped much below 1 bar then the pressure is too low. There should be a valve that wil refill the boiler to the correct pressure (or it may have an automatic feed in which case it won’t lose pressure) this pressure varies depending on the size of the system, but about 1bar would be a safe bet. The valve will be on the inlet pipe to the boiler and will be fed by the rising main. once the system is pressurised return to the ra
