Help with bleeding a radiator

[Sue N]

Hi,

I'm having trouble bleeding my radiator in my loft conversion. I had the loft conversion around 4 years ago and this has a bathroom and bedroom up there. The bathroom rad does need bleeding as well as it is bubbling when turned on but the little flat head screw thing has one of the bits broken off, so i guess i need to get some sort of thin pliers to get a grip of this to turn it???

The bedroom rad i have opened with a flat head screwdriver and i could hear air coming out but no water came out. I have left it on for a good 5 minutes with no water. I closed it and turned all my heating back on but only the bottom was hot still. I closed all the thermostatic values on all the other rads in the house and tried it but still no water comes out.

I have spent all afternoon looking on the internet and forms for some advice and have read about pressure. I have a Worcester Greenstar RI wall hung gas fired condensing boiler (from front of manual) in the kitchen which was installed at the same time as the loft was completed. Also in a cupboard in the loft conversion i have a Oso Super S unvented hot water cylinder 120-300 litres (from front of manual).

I can't seem to see any pressure gauge or anyway of filling the system like my old combi boiler in my old house.

Any help with my problem would really be helpful guys.

Once i have bled the system i plan of attempting to balance the heating so that i get uniform heating throughout the house as at the moment it seems all over the place and the loft is very cold in the winter.

Sue.

 

[stevetheplumber]

look up the instructions for filling your boiler its different with worcesters theres a key. or should be a key attached to the bottom panel of the boiler

 

[Sue N]

Thanks for the reply, i have searched and searched through my instructions but can't see anything about filling my boiler. There is no gauge either so even if i found the key thing how could i tell how much to fill it by?

 

[Sue N]

Forgot to say that i have a Worcester Greenstar 18Ri and watching youtube videos it seem that other Greenstar boilers have a flap down panel with a gauge, key etc. Mine i can't see anywhere to even plug a key. It does not have a flap down panel and the instructions don't say anything about filling it.

 

[Best]

Hi Sue, I am not a gas installer, but you might have a sealed heating system with components remote to the boiler & a filling loop somewhere in the property. Sometimes it can be at the hot cylinder you mentioned. Do you see a red round tank somewhere?
You really need a heating engineer out to show you what system you have & anything you need to look out for & they could balance your system. You also are supposed to have a G3 qualified engineer service your unvented cylinder once a year for safety & warranty.
The radiator vent would need replaced.

 

[Chalked]

Could be open vented and header tank not high enough to fill the rad. ( loft conversion)

Are is there any tanks in your loft space?

 

[Dotty]

Threads merged and everything else tidied up.

 

[Sue N]

Do you see a red round tank somewhere?

Yes! You lovely person.

I do have one of those. I had forgotten about it. It is in the loft storage space. There is a gauge on that. I do not have any instructions for it but it says it is made my Zilmet and looks like supplied by Boss Group Plc, Fleet House, Leicester. I'll write down the things on the label and hopefully you can tell me about it.

Max working PRessure - 4 bar
Factory precharge 1.5 bar
Capacity Litres - 12

It has two turn key things built into either end of a metal braided hose that one end is connected to the gauge and the other to a pipe.

So do i turn both keys until it said about 1.5 bar?

 

[PlumbBobBob]

yes Sue exactly that pressurise to 1.5 bar then go round bleeding the rads at which point the pressure will go down again. just repressurise again when finished.

 

[Best]

Yes! You lovely person.

I love it when a woman calls me lovely. :grin:

 

[tamz]

I love it when a woman calls me son...............takes years off me :smile:

 

[Sue N]

I'm embarrassed to say that the gauge said zero

But i have filled it to 1.5 and then bled all the rads again and it went down to around 1 bar so filled it back up again to 1.5.

The rad in the loft conversion let out loads of air and then water! yay!

So i'm going to give this balancing thing ago even though i don't have a thermometer. I presume i can do a rough balancing thing without one?

Oh and thanks for your help guys.

 

[Ermintrude]

I like it when they confuse me with good looking lads!

 

[Sue N]

Having just put the heating on with all the radiator's on full they all seem to be pipping hot except for the long lounge rad which has a small cooler spot at the bottom middle.

Does this mean i don't have to worry about balancing them???

 

[Best]

I'm embarrassed to say that the gauge said zero

But i have filled it to 1.5 and then bled all the rads again and it went down to around 1 bar so filled it back up again to 1.5.

The rad in the loft conversion let out loads of air and then water! yay!

So i'm going to give this balancing thing ago even though i don't have a thermometer. I presume i can do a rough balancing thing without one?

Oh and thanks for your help guys.

Lovely person here again. Yes, you can sometimes do a basic balancing of your heating if you know what radiators are first in circuit. Just remove the lockshield valve head on each radiator & turn the first valve to almost fully off & the next closest radiator in circuit very very slightly more on & keep going until the last is fully open. If there is a noise of water flowing into any of the valves that are turned almost off, then just open a slight bit more.
Get an engineer in to do a full check of your heating & unvented cylinder. That red vessel requires a heating engineer to recharge its air pressure, for example.

 

[Sue N]

So annoying that my posts don't appear straight away and i can't post an image of my valve to show you all.

I have a leak on a locksheild value thingys in one of the bedrooms. It seems to be coming from the thread part. Can any of you lovely chaps and chapesses help me please. If i screw it down it almost floods the place so i've had to screw it up and although not flooding still leaks quite a bit!

If i get this one sorted then i think thats me done for a few weeks with this DIY stuff!

 

[Sue N]

Just to make it clear its the lock sheild value pin thread that is leaking at the very top. The part that you screw up and down.

 

[Sue N]

Anyone have any ideas, as i don't want to wake up in the morning with a soggy carpet

 

[Dotty]

See the big nut through which the spindle (The bit you turn) passes?

Give that a nip up.

 

[Sue N]

Thanks i'll give it a go