Single radiator not working

[Mrs c]

As title states we have one radiator not working in the house and I really need it sorting ASAP.

We have done everything to get it working and when British gas engineers have been they have re checked everything. Their conclusion is that there is an airlock in the wall and its impossible to remove so we need to rip off the plaster and replace the pipe

Is there anything else you can suggest to move this airlock

 

[JohnKay]

Hi Mrs c
You haven't given any details of your system, but if this really is an air lock, I can't see how ripping off plaster is going to help.
so please let me have as much info as you can on the system, and we'll try to sort it out.

 

[Mrs c]

Ok so I'm clearly a woman that knows nothing about this stuff so hopefully this information will help.....

My boiler is an ideal he12 . All of the radiators are what came with the house when it was built 9years ago . The thermostat thing that's attached to the wall is siemenscalled a rev23 and we also have an emergency back up boiler called a boiler mate 2000 so in the event of the combo boiler breaking we can still have heat and hot water powered by electric

If you need anything else can you let me know what to look for and I get the info

Thanks in advance

 

[JohnKay]

As you have a Boilermate, this may have been complicating things a little.
I'm sure you are aware, the boiler only heats the Boilermate, which stores heat, and serves the radiators.
There is a way of providing heat separately to a bathroom rad/towel rail. So could this cold radiator be in the bathroom ?
Would I be right that your radiators are supplied with very small pipework (microbore) mostly run within the plasterboard walls on the ground floor, and run under the floor on the first floor ?
Have you got Thermostatic valves on the rads ?
What action has been done so far to resolve this problem, and how did the problem start, any other indications ie odd noises etc.

 

[Mrs c]

Yeah boiler mate has been a complete nightmare for the last 3 years constantly causing the boiler to break down. The radiator the issue is with is actually at the bottom of the stairs at the front door where the thermostat is so the heating constantly wants to be on as it thinks the house is 15 rather than the 21 or higher it is so we have to adjust the temp all the time.

All radiators apart from the bathroom have a thermostatic valve. The one on the problem radiator has been repalced by British gas

The radiator has been taken off the wall and flushed, bled,all radiators have been turned off to force this one to flush through and they have even had a pump to try and force the lock through. When the radiator was off the wall the inlet pipe did feed hot water in and the radiator ran clean so we know the issue must be somewhere in the pipe leading back to the pump.

I really don't want to have to take the plaster off my wall to get a replacement oh and forgot to say the pipes are the microbore

 

[JohnKay]

Thanks for the info.
There's a lot to go wrong in a Boilermate, and they cost a fortune to replace. But that's not likely to be the problem now.
Looking at what has been done, the fault is obviously not an air lock.
Removing, flushing, and checking the flow from the supplies is what I would have suggested.
So it looks like there is a physical obstrucion in the pipework. This could be due to debris building up at a point of restriction, a dent, or bad bend for instance. The other likely site would be at the manifold where the microbore tube is joined to the main pipework.

I would be looking first at the manifold, and then at the pipework under the floor, maybe cutting through the suspect pipe somewhere above the radiator, that way it could be checked both ways

I wonder why it's been suggested that the fault is behind the plasterboard of the walls. I would have thought that would really be a last resort, as the damage would be very difficult to repair. Surely there's better access from the floor above. Or is there ?

 

[Sammyboy]

Hi John its Sammyboy a thought about Mrs C rad problem how about forcing water through the drain cock in the front rad so as to push water up instead of letting the water come down through gravity just a thought ???

 

[JohnKay]

Hi, Sammyboy

Thanks for your input. One of many little dodges that could work in some cases. This one really sounded like a physical blockage. Let's hope it's all sorted now.
Be nice to know the outcome.