cold radiators All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[John Paul]

hi,
I recently had a radiator added to the heating system,which is oil fired and a closed system.
The problem is that it is not heating up as well as the others.
The plumer took the feed from another radiator and ran it to the return side of the new raditor, and ran the return pipe to the new radiator with the rome thermostat on it,that being the feed end .Was this radiator plumbed wrong ?

Regards paul moore

[rosebery]

By room thermostat I presume you mean TRV. Some people do fit them on the return rather than the flow which is the wrong way round. Did he balance it after fitting and /or check the balance on the whole system?

Ring him up, tell him you are not happy with its performance, invite him to come back and sort it out for you. After all you did pay him I guess.

[John Paul]

can anyone tell me how i would know the difference between the feed and return pipes on a heating system,and if the feed pipes would heat up first on a radiator? I think one of my valves are on the wrong side of a radiator on my system ?

[htg engineer]

Most modern TRV's are bi-directional, so it doesn't matter if they're on the flow or return. As the TRV head senses the room temperature, not the water temperature - it really doesn't matter, all it does is closes the valve on one side of the radiator - meaning the water stops flowing through the radiator. The only considerations when installing a TRV are, don't install in a room containing a room stat, if you do make sure it's on full and use the room thermostat to adjust the temperature and the TRV should be on the end of the radiator (either end, flow or return) that has the most free airflow, and wont be hidden behind curtains etc.

The flow will be the pipe that gets hot first.

'The plumber took the feed from another radiator' that's more than likely the problem, he should tee into the main flow (22mm) and return from the boiler, not the branch feeding another radiator (one will be starving the other)

htg