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Dec 11, 2022
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London
Member Type
DIY or Homeowner
Hi all,

I'm hoping someone here can help. The radiators in my living room aren't heating as well as the radiator in bedroom, hall and bathroom in my flat.

I've checked and both seem to be free from trapped air (tried to bleed and water came straight out). Now one radiator gets a lot warmer than the other.

Neither of the radiators have the valves that have the numbers on (excuse my lack of terminology!!).

The radiator I'm most concerned with only gets warm at the top. Looking online this could be a build up of sludge, but I'm not sure

In the attache picks, the blue box shows where I attempted to bleed the rad.
Red box shows one of the valves - and the other is green. The green valve, I removed the cap this morning (with heating off) and had to use spanner to check it was fully turned anit-clockwise (which it was). However this has made no difference to the temp.

Silly question, but do I need to do the same on the other, lower valve (in red)?

I'm hoping this is a quick fix rather than needing to call out a professional - but at the same time I'm a novice and rent the flat so don't want to break anything.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Thanks
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Rich
 
The green one is the control valve and is a householder control to turn a radiator on and off.

The red one is a balancing ('lockshield') valve. Which you shouldn't be touching as once you upset the balancing, it's (or it can be) several hours work to get it right again.

Possibly the system needs balancing, but if it can be seen as needing balancing because you've been buggering about with what should have been done by the installer of the heating...

Congratulations on the clear way you've presented the information with the coloured boxes - it has certainly made it easy to understand what you are talking about.
 
The green one is the control valve and is a householder control to turn a radiator on and off.

The red one is a balancing ('lockshield') valve. Which you shouldn't be touching as once you upset the balancing, it's (or it can be) several hours work to get it right again.

Possibly the system needs balancing, but if it can be seen as needing balancing because you've been buggering about with what should have been done by the installer of the heating...

Congratulations on the clear way you've presented the information with the coloured boxes - it has certainly made it easy to understand what you are talking about.
Cheers.

No, I've not touched the lockshield balancing valve.

The green one, yes, but that's made no difference. The Rad in question barely gets warm. The other one in the living room does. But both are poor compared to living room, bathroom and hallway.

I think it's best we get a professional to have a look. Thanks for your time and helping me understand what the other valve was, much appreciated
 
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