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I’ve got a 15 year old system and two downstairs rads that wont heat up. I’ve got a £20 a monthly insurance and they put some Jollop into the system to clean the gunk.
My thought was take the Rads off and flush them but the fella who came out tells me that they aren’t allowed to do that ( health and safety) I don’t know how they’d replace a failed rad? Maybe they use sky hooks!!!

Im not impressed with Scottish Powers Boiler an Radiator cover!

If the top corners of the rad get hot but not the bottom middle then it’s rad sludge as it collects in an upside down ‘V’ shape. Are both radiators near to each other? I’d say flush the rads with a hose pipe after you have tried this:

First thing to try is switching the programmer to heating only, turn the stat right up and shut every single rad off bar one of the ones you’re having trouble with.
This should get the rad hot as the pumped heating water has got no place else to go. Assuming this does get the radiator going open the other problematic rad before shutting the one that just got hot (save burning out the pump).

Trapped air in a pipe feeding these radiators is most likely, it catches people out as they bleed their rads and get water, so assume they are air free.

If you have already tried this or it doesn’t work the next thing to look at is the pump.

It’s most likely a red grundfos ups 15/50 (same but blue if it was a BG part). It will have a flat head slot on the front of it the size of a pound coin, in screw it all the way, this is how you bleed it. Water will dribble out at a slow and steady rate so have a bowl handy, grab a screwdriver until it’s scraping the impeller and try and stop it from spinning. If it’s easy to stop then the pump is on its way out and it’s a circulation issue.

It’s at this point I’d be thinking it’s a blockage, if both radiators are next to each other it’s going to be sludged pipe work. There are options such as power flushing, chemical cleaner or re piping those rads from the carcass pipework where it’s known to be working.

Make sure your pump speed is up to 3/3 as well. Do you have a gravity system or pressurised?

Don’t forget any towel warmers will need to be shut at one of the lock shields if you have towel warmers.

I imagine the system is full of magnatite. This needs to be flushed out of each radiator one by one ideally.

They may have put some X400 inhibitor in the system to keep the particles in suspension but this cheating and will eventually lead to clogging up again. I would be looking at biting the bullet and getting a jetflush done by a proper plumber.

It may be a few hundred quid but if it gets you back toasty warm then it is worth it for me.

H.

Thanks for the replies
They have dosed the system with two loads of Fernox F5 but they don’t seem to have grasped the problem when that there is no flow thro two rads !
The rads that have flow are getting much hotter now which says to me that the chemical has had some effect where there is flow to allow chemical activation

They have pre charged me £338 for the application of the chemical then when it was cleared, the fitting of a magnetic filter and application of inhibitor but as the problem still exists it money back time!

The plumber who came out seemed embarrassed that he was not allowed to remove the rad and wash it out!

Once I’ve got the refund process underway it’s proper plumber time and I don’t think I will be paying £20 a month insurance

I had a problematic radiator a while back which was a 2 meter double panel which had a fair amount of sludge in it, being the largest radiator in the house I think most of the system sludge had settled in it. I decided to book a specialist firm who did power flushing and quoted me £470 to do the job. Ironically they never turned up so decided in the end to get a local plumber to drain the system, refilled it with flushing chemical and left it to run for a week or so. Had the system drained again and decided to replace the offending radiator along with a smaller one in the hall rather than hosing them out and the final bill still only came to £500. Im really unsure if powerflushing is any more cost effective than just running some flushing chemical around the system for a few days and replacing the worst radiators, they're pretty cheap these days.

Tim.

Update:-
No 3 fella came out today and observed the still blocked rads, he wasnt prepared to fit his filter and again confirmed that company policy would not allow him to remove the radiator. Who has ever heard of a heating engineer not being allowed to remove a radiator?

I have a Boiler and Radiator insurance with Scottish Power ( until tomorrow ) the £338 they charged for the Fernox cleaning fluid and filter fit is to be returned. It wasn’t added to the system correctly or as per the manufacturers specified methods on both occassions

I’ve got a local and known quality heating engineer coming out Friday pm.

By the stupid attitude of Scottiish Power repair people I will kick the £18 a month insurance into the long grass.

Have they not grasped that chemicals don't work if the water can't get through the radiator.

Madness.

Havard wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:14 am Have they not grasped that chemicals don't work if the water can't get through the radiator.

Madness.

I did ask but the supervisor waffled !
The instructions on the can say, add to the radiator but they chose to ignore- it also says drain, refill and add the chemical, they also chose to ignore that!
To make matters worse - he hasn’t phoned as promised by the attending engineer - cr4p service I would say.

Update Info:-

I decided to cough up for a proper known quality heating engineer to take a look. He confirmed flow from the system then looked at the head of the TRV - solid as a rock in the closed position.

He replaced the head and ON came the heat! The fella spent half an hour to diagnose and fix - that included a chinwag as well.

I’ve now written to Scottish Power, who operate my warranty scheme, to remind
them that I have had to pay for a fix which should have been covered under the policy.

I thought there were 2 rads not working Ron? Glad you got sorted though...

Havard wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2017 12:32 am I thought there were 2 rads not working Ron? Glad you got sorted though...

There was - however once he determined that there was flow in the easy access rad and the replacement TRV head sorted it, he just replace the head on number two.

He says a full power flush then an inhibitor will be the order of the day come springtime - just belt and braces. (He says about £250 )

A good tip with TRV valves is to run the heating once a month throughout the summer and give all the valves a good turning whilst running, can save alot grief once winter comes and helps prevent the valve pins from sticking through lack of use.

Poor service from SP.

Tim.

I have actually taken most of our TRV heads off. I just use our heating as on / off control without a timer. I just found that with our life styles we were out when the timer came on and in when it was off. Now if we are cold we fire it up and set the thermostats to 20 degrees.

I never let it get lower than 17 degrees though. Our heating bills have plummeted since we ripped out the timer. Hot water is on permanently through the cylinder but with a family of 4, the 210 litre wouldn't work very well on a timer anyway.

H.

Running the system in the summer keeps pump moving but won’t it just close the trv‘s as the temp will be quickly reached and the valves closed?