Radiator Not Hot on the Middle Floor In A Three Stories House

Hi there,
I am having trouble with my radiator. I have got a three-story house, ground and 2nd floor are dead hot and no matter what I do, the 1st floor never hot. Three bedrooms and bathroom on the 1st floor and only one of the kid’s bedroom is only warm, all others are dead cold.

When I bought the house 4 years ago, only my bedroom radiator dead cold, and I can live with that since we had no problem with 1st-floor bathroom and all kid’s bedroom, but now!!!

Mine is a Combi boiler about 10 years old by 2020.
I have replaced the valve, cleaned the radiator, replaced one radiator, drained central heating system and refilled inhibitor.

I have tried to turned off all other radiator and only with 1st floor radiators on, but nothing changed.

Your urgent support is much appreciated.

Best

Joe

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 10 months ago

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To throw my insight: if you are having issues identifying your Return Pipes I would call in a Professional. I am all for DIY but you can cause more harm than good when you go over your head in those siutations; following up on improprer work is currently about 30% of our work for Repairs.

lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 10 months ago

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To throw my insight: if you are having issues identifying your Return Pipes I would call in a Professional. I am all for DIY but you can cause more harm than good when you go over your head in those siutations; following up on improprer work is currently about 30% of our work for Repairs.

Master Plvmber | 5 years and 10 months ago

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> @jojocooper
> No zone valve and the pump are hiding behind the boiler’s front cover.

That internal pump is not meant to provide flow to anything but a short loop of piping. You probably need a “system” pump, and that would mean some repiping at the boiler. Good luck. This sounds resolvable.

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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re: eman134,

thanks, mate, I have got one recommended guy working on it at the moment, if he can’t get things resolved, I will email you.

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Re: anotherposter,

I have basically tried everything, now only three things left to do is
1. changing the pump (it is quite noisy)
2. power flush
3. looking at the pipework for the 1st floor.

I will work on the first two things to see if this will help. I presume pipework is something cost massively

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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How do I know which is return pipe?

mozeeatupu | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Check your return pipe is fully open at boiler.

eman134 | 5 years and 10 months ago

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i could take a look at it late next week…its heating season and i’m busy as hell…email me at errol832000@hotmail.com if you want to schedule an appointment

anotherposter | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Also, one plumber who was working on some other simple stuff couldn’t figure out how to bleed some new “fancy” ones we have and told me they couldn’t be done. Luckily he was wrong and I figured it out and they work great now. So, even a supposed professional might miss something.

anotherposter | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Have you bled the radiators? I don’t know much about them and hadn’t lived with them for 10+ years until we recently moved to a place with a variety of types of radiators. Some along the line were not getting any heat, some just a tiny amount, and some were nice and hot. I learned how to bleed them and now the cold or warm at the pipe ones are all nice and hot–some were basically full of air. I think the system couldn’t force the water through to the air-filled units and went along until it found ones it could, so those were hot–I think the water could essentially skip a unit, not passing through one to the next.

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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but all three radiators on my loft are very hot and only 1st floor left cold. I presume the hot water comes from the boiler, through the ground floor to the loft and get to 1st at last before returning back to the boiler? I have 4 radiators on the 1st floor and only my daughter’s bedroom radiator is slightly warm, all others are dead cold. frustrating

Guest User | 5 years and 10 months ago

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Thank you guys, I have a central heating system, and the boiler is Baxi Combi. No zone valve and the pump are hiding behind the boiler’s front cover.

I have asked someone pop in and had a look. After three hours, he said it will be either pump not sufficient enough to get to the 1st floor or I need new pipework for my central heating system.

I have requested a quote for him to install a new pump or repiping. Hopefully, it won’t be so expensive and get the problem resolved.

hkapstein | 5 years and 10 months ago

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It sounds like you have a hot water system. First, bleed all radiators well. Check the psi at the boiler is sufficient to reach the top floor radiators. Replace defective pumps. Same would go for zone valves. Check also the zone controller and thermostats. Next determine how your radiators are plumbed, and check the balance. Is there more than one radiator in series in that loop? If so, make sure they are all open. Then close the other radiators and try to force the system to pump through the cold radiators. Try bleeding again. Does the pump deadhead? Try to figure out if you need to open a valve somewhere. If that doesn’t work you could try flushing out the system, but I doubt that works. After that you might need to call a pro.

eman134 | 5 years and 10 months ago

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How is the 1st floor heat controlled? Zone valves or pump?

nednedx

in General Discussion 5 years and 10 months ago

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Call a professional. Do not use Vigilante plumbing….they are price gougers and charge ridiculous amounts for small jobs

lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 10 months ago

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You should call a professional with the expertise and tools to determine the correct source of the issue.
If you must do it yourself, your first step is identifying your Heating System type.

lkrshacmzcy | 5 years and 10 months ago

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    string(1) "0"
    ["deleted"]=>
    string(1) "0"
  }
  ["ID"]=>
  int(209518)
  ["caps"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["cap_key"]=>
  string(15) "wp_capabilities"
  ["roles"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(15) "bbp_participant"
  }
  ["allcaps"]=>
  array(1) {
    ["bbp_participant"]=>
    bool(true)
  }
  ["filter"]=>
  NULL
  ["site_id":"WP_User":private]=>
  int(1)
}

You should call a professional with the expertise and tools to determine the correct source of the issue.
If you must do it yourself, your first step is identifying your Heating System type.