New House Radiator Woes !!!! All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Chudsy]

Hi All,
Just moved to a new property with a standard (non-combi) boiler with a time switch for the heating and hot water. It has is floor mounted and has a storage cylinder above it. Forgive me for being vague but We've had the property one week and I returned from a week long overseas trip on saturday.
I noticed that some rads were getting hotter than others so I checked the in/out valves and found that some were barely open (hot one side and cold the other).
In my infinite wisdom I went around opening the in/out valves to get everything flowing. My good lady informs me today that some of the rads are now not coming on.
The people we bought the house off said he set the pump to barely trickle over as he used to leave it on a low constant setting.
The rad nearest the boiler seems to be the hottest.
Should I go back and tweak off the rads one by one until I find the balance or is there and easier way to get things moving?
None of the rads have thermostatic valves.
Sorry for the long initial post!!
Cheers
Paul.

[rosebery]

First is there air in any of the rads? Open up the bleed valve on each in turn to let any air out.

Second, if nothing else your system now requires balancing properly. This is done by adjusting the pump sped so that there is an approx 11 degree difference between flow and return at the boiler and then going round beginning with the rad that heats up first and finishing with the one that heats up last and adjusting the lockshield valve (which it seems you may have opened on each one) so that there is an approx 11 degree temperature difference between flow and return on each rad.

I suspect that you may be advised to call a plumber out to do it for you. It won't take very long. He could give the system a once over whilst he is there just in case there are underlying issues. Get a coupe of quotes.

Cheers

[Chudsy]

Many thanks for the advice, here's what happened last night (no tinternet at home at the mo).
Bled rads as I noticed one or two only hot at bottom so that's now all ok. I then fettled a few lockshield valves and managed to get heat to 7 out of the 10 rads.
It seems that the remaining 3 are on their own little loop and both pipes to all 3 rads are cold(1 upstairs 2 down). I cannot see where the feed is coming from as it disappears into the ceiling / floor. The upstairs rad has no bleed key either.
I've read many how toos on balancing but it seems strange that the 3 show no sign of heat near them.
The boiler is a Ideal E type RS and the pump speed is set at 1.
As mentioned previously, all was working ok before I adjusted the LSVs.
Should all control valves be wide open and the LSVs control the pressure?
Regards
Paul.