Why are my radiators not warming up?
If your radiators aren’t heating up properly, this can be for a number of reasons. Check out our pointers below to see if you can resolve the problems without the need for an engineer.
None of the radiators are working
- If none of your radiators are working, this is probably an issue with your boiler or central heating controls.
- Check that your room thermostat is set correctly and remember that there may be different room thermostats for different parts of the property.
- Check that your timer or programmer is working properly.
Some radiators aren’t heating up
- If one or two of your radiators aren’t heating up, or are too hot, try adjusting the valves on the radiators. Thermostatic radiator valves (which usually have numbers around the circumference) can be adjusted to the heat you need. The older style lockshield valve, needs a radiator tool (which you can easily buy at a DIY store): remove the plastic covering on the valve and adjust it with the tool. If no change occurs after you’ve adjusted the settings, the radiator valve may be faulty.
- If the whole of radiators in parts of your house are cool, this may be due to the pump being insufficiently strong to ensure that the heat reaches all radiators. The boiler will heat up the radiators closest to it first so, to allow heat to reach the furthest radiators, you may need to partially tighten the valves on the warmer radiators closer to the boiler.
- If parts of your radiators are cool (and the cool patches move from one radiator to the next) then this may be due to air in the central heating system. This is most likely if the cool patches are towards the top of the radiator. You can try bleeding the radiators to release the air.
- If the cool patches are toward the bottom of the radiator, this more likely to be due to a build up of rust or sludge in your system, and it may need cleaning.
If in doubt, contact us now and we will arrange for a Gas Registered engineer to visit you. Call out costs are only £40 (plus VAT) and include the first 30 minutes labour.
Please note that we would always recommend that you obtain advice from a Gas Safe registered engineer, and you should never attempt to dismantle your boiler or to make any alterations to it.