Help with radiators please!

[berniedicters]

The "knobs" that are on the radiators are, basically Taps.

One of the pipes has hot water coming INTO the radiator and the other pipe lets hot water OUT of the radiator.

You can find out which by switching the central heating on and catching hold of both pipes ON A RADIATOR that works and see which one gets hot first. (That'll be the hot water in), then the radiator gets warm and the other pipe starts to warm up. (That'll be the hot water out).

The Knobs / Taps (or valves) are there so you can switch off a radiator, or adjust the amount of hot water that goes to the radiator and allows you to adjust the temperature of a room, manually.

Now the council have put thermostatic valves on to the radiator this is done automatically.

The other use for these TAPs is if they are both switched off, then you can drain a radiator and remove it from the wall for easier decorating. You only have to empty the radiator and not drain down the entire central heating system.

Er, one slight clarification.

The tap on one end does everything you say. The tap on the other, which usually has a cap that doesn't allow you to turn it is for "balancing the system" - essentially, fine-tuning flows through all the radiators to ensure an even distribution of heat throughout the premises.

Ideally, you don't want to be fiddling with the non-adjustable ones (just in case someone's tempted to break out the mole grips and have a tweak)

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

I now have 9 working radiators after gas man came and unstuck the valves

 

[High Voltage]

Ahhh!! but did you WATCH WHAT HE WAS DOING???? For the NEXT TIME??

 

[Minnie_the_Minx]

Ahhh!! but did you WATCH WHAT HE WAS DOING???? For the NEXT TIME??

He was banging them with a spanner

However, I also discovered why I have such difficulty using them. Nine radiators in the house and there's probably 3 or 4 different designs of thingies to control them which means when you think one is on hot because it's on marking number whatever, it isn't, even though it is on another radiator IFSWIM