What's wrong with my towel radiator?

[stephec]

It's pretty much cold from top to bottom.

There's two valves at the bottom which are fully open, and when I open the bleed valve water pees out straight away but still no warmth, anyone got any ideas please?

 

[geocycle]

Is the input pipe hot?

 

[MontyVeda]

Probably a blockage in the pipe leading to it.

 

[newts]

Probably an airlock in the heating loop, have you had any work done on the system since it was last used?
Are the other radiators getting hot?

 

[fossyant]

Switch off all the other radiators in the house, then run heating - it should then shft the air lock and towel rail will be warm, then one by one, open up the other radiators.

 

[neil_merseyside]

Shut off other radiators to force water through the lazy one (or not if blockage!), but only use the temperature adjustment end as you don't want to mess with balancing on the other lockshield end - and though balancing a system works really and important it is a pain to do it properly/easily.

So balancing is a dark art for another day...

 

[sleuthey]

Does it have a TRV? If so take the thermostat off the valve body and see if it makes any difference

 

[stephec]

Cheers everyone, but as if to laugh at me and fart in my general direction it's now starting working after my last bleeding effort, hope it stays that way. 😊

 

[bikingdad90]

I was going to suggest the baffle is blocked if one valve is cold and the other warm and if both valves are warm then it’s probably a broken baffle and the water is going straight through instead of round the rad.

 

[gbb]

Does it have a TRV? If so take the thermostat off the valve body and see if it makes any difference

I was going to suggest that but with an additional bit. Once the top is off exposing the body, look for a chrome pin sticking up. This often siezes up when left for a while. Press it in manually, free it off somehow and it usually works OK after that.

 

[stephec]

No TRV on it, we left it free flowing as a kind of safety valve should there be a problem elsewhere in the system.

 

[CXRAndy]

Always recommended to have a radiator without trv usually near the thermostat. That's what building inspector said last year on my newbuild