How to Fix a Cold Radiator 4 Easy Ways | DIY Plumbing

all right guys so we're back with Heaton today and loads of you are turning radiators on at this time of year and finding a cold radiator in your home and what I'll do in this video is go over four simple reasons that you might have a cold radiator and I'll show you how to fix each one so hopefully we can get your curled radiator working again and save you a bit of money for the weekend so let's get straight into it with the first reason for a cold radiator [Music] foreign before we make a start let's assume that the rest of your heating system is working some of your radiators are getting hot but you've just got this one pain in the backside radiator that's cold so that's what we're going to do we're going to take a look at that and show you how to fix it and the first reason that you might have a cold radiator is a sticking TRV pin so let's take a look at a simple way that we can fix that TRV pin and hopefully avoid having to change the whole TRV now there's sometimes a Telltale sign as to whether the thermostatic radiator valve is the problem and that is warmth in the pipe coming up to the valve so sometimes if you give the pipe a feel if you can get access to it and it's warm but your radiator is not getting warm then that can certainly point to that valve so what we're going to do now is we're going to take the head off the TRV now that's really really easy but you're going to need a pair of Plumbing grips so grab a set of Plumbing grips like these ones link will be in the description if you want to get a decent pair so to take this off get the grips on the collar there and just turn that anti-clockwise and undo that collar and what you'll find is you'll then be able to lift the TRV head off the valve itself so we'll be able to get to the pin inside now in the top of the valve here you'll see we've got this pin and the reason that this can cause us a problem is that the pin can't actually release from the seat at the bottom of the valve and the water can't pass through into the radiator and that is really common at this time of year because everyone goes and turns they're heating on after months of it being off and these pins do get stuck now there's two ways you can go about trying to fix this first of all don't go hitting it with anything like a hammer that is the last thing you want to do because you can end up damaging the pin or the valves first thing I want you to try and do is push down on the pin with something soft like the handle of your grips you can see here that the pen on this one is not stuck down because I can push it up and down if it is stuck down still try and give it a push because that movement alone can sometimes shock the pin into freeing off and actually working its way off the seat the next thing you can try and do and again don't hit it with anything hard but just give it a little shock on the side of the valve just like that okay don't have to hit it very hard and sometimes you'll watch that pin actually release you can see it release and come back up off of the seat of the valve that will often work a lot a lot of the times I've seen that work and it can be a really effective little trick and save you a load of money in the space of a few minutes in that worked for you happy days we can put the valve head back on if you couldn't release the pin and you think it's stuck and you suspect that that TRV is causing you problems then check out this video at the top of the screen where I take you through a TRV replacement right let's move on to the next reason you might have a cold radiator but before we do that if you like DIY content make sure you hit the Subscribe button for me because you don't want to miss out on all the great stuff I've got to come and if the video helps you out today make sure you hit the like button for me because that really helps this video reach and help more people on YouTube so the next reason for a cold radiator and probably the most common is that you've got air in your radiators how can you tell if you've got air in the radio as well the most obvious sign of air in a radiator is that the top of the radiator isn't getting hot but the bottom of the radiator is getting warm or hot and that is because when the water comes into the radiator it's not able to travel into the top because that's full of air so what I'll do now is show you just how easy it is to Blade your radiator and get rid of that air so that water can move up into the radiator to make it nice and hot so you're going to need a radiator bleed key I'll stick a link to one of these brass radiator bleakies because they're the best ones in the description so you can go and grab yourself one all we need to do grab a cloth to catch any of the water and guys use a cloth don't use the wise curtains I know what you're thinking place the key onto the bleed valve now we're going to get one or two things here when we open this we're either going to get water straight away if we get water straight away then we know that we don't have air in the radiator but let's listen out for hissing of air because if we get some hissing we know that air is coming out of the radiator and if we do hear hissing we'll continue to bleed until water streams from the bleed nipple if we get water straight away we'll leave it for a few seconds and let that water flow just to check there's no air in the top of the radiator you hear that hissing that is air in the radiator once water starts to come out close the valve back off if that fixed it for you great you can enjoy a nice hot radiator so before we take a look at the next reason for cold radiators let me tell you a little bit about this week's sponsor who are I heat so I hear a boiler installation company but what makes them different well basically they make it really simple because you can just go on their website and use their online tool to get an instant fixed quote on your new boiler all you need to do is answer some simple questions about your 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way to fix sludge in a radiator is to remove the radiator Take It Outside and flush water through that radiator right so let me show you how to take the radiator off we're laying out towel van first of all and then what I want you to do is take a look again at this thermostatic radiator valve and I want you to close that all the way down that way no water can flow through that valve we'll then come over to we call the lock Shield valve on the other side of the radiator take the cap off and then you will see the valve inside now we're going to close that valve off grab an adjustable spanner and count the turns that it takes you to turn that valve off you'll see why it's important to count those turns when we take a look at the next reason for a cold radiator so that's the lock Shield valve off once the log Shield valve and the TRV are turned off bleed the pressure from the radiator just like we did before and then do up that bleed valve again we can now slacken off the nuts on each of the valve so use your grips to hold the valve and use your adjustable spanner to just slacken off the nut all we need to do for now is slacking it off don't undo it completely come over to the TRV side and do the same on that one what you're now going to need to do is get something to catch some of this water and then undo the nut and you'll see that the water inside the radiator is going to come out to speed up drain and the water out of the radiator undo the bleed key which will allow that water to flow out of there a little bit quicker looks like it's coming to the end and that's all the water drained from the radiator and now we've got both valves undone we can remove the radiator from the wall so just lift it up off of the brackets and just tip it and you can see there is a little bit of sludge in there next up get the garden hose and blast it through the radiator to get rid of any sludge that might be inside stick the hose on the end of that valve switch on the outside tap and you can see there we've blasted a bit of sludge out there just let that water flow through for a minute to get out any of that sludge before we go put the radiator back on right let's go put this back on the wall let's hook the radiator back on its bracket make sure it's lined up with the valves and we can then hand tighten those valves first of all and then we'll just nip them up using the adjustable spanner when we do open the valves back up we'll just check on to check that they don't leak then so now what you want to do is turn both of the valves back on and if you remember I told you to count the amount of turns that you turned the lock Shield valve off by I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a minute but set this back to where it was before open up the thermostatic radiator valve as well and now undo that bleed screw again and you can hear the air coming out and that means that the radiator is now being refilled once water starts to come out close the valve back off and you will need to top up the pressure in the central heating system with your filling loop on the boiler now just check those valves for leaks to check that we haven't created any leaks and that should be successful sludge removal and you should get some heat coming in at the radiator so the last reason you might have a car radiator yeah is due to radiator balancing now let's take that cap off there you'll notice that earlier on I told you to count the amount of turns that you closed off and then opened up the lock Shield valve the reason for that is the lock Shield valve balances your heating system in your home and if it's not balanced correctly it can cause cold radiators and what could happen is all the other radiators could be rubbing the heat from this radiator and it may not be able to get the water it needs to heat up now if you've had any work done or radiator balance and hasn't been done in your home for some years and you suspect that this could be an issue head over to my video and I'll put a little pop up on the screen here and that video will explain to you in depth how to balance your radiators so go check that out hello I hope you guys have enjoyed the video I hope it's helped some of you out if it has be sure to leave a like and I'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: The DIY Guy

Views: 1,234,633

Keywords: plumbing, plumber, diy, diy plumbing, one cold radiator in central heating system, one cold radiator, cold radiators at the bottom, cold radiator in one room, cold radiator, one cold radiator in system, fix a cold radiator, cold radiator fix, cold radiators but heating on, one cold radiator downstairs, radiator fix, fix radiator, Plumbing DIY, Plumbing Tips, radiator repair, central heating, how-to (media genre), radiator not working, radiator sludge removal, bleed radiator

Id: U2CY4rHr7nA

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2022