Something has gone badly wrong when adding a new radiator.
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rigsby1208
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Something has gone badly wrong when adding a new radiator.

by rigsby1208 » Tue Dec 08, 2009 3:55 pm

Hi
I have recently bought a 1930 house, with what appears to be quite old radiators - I'm guessing 30 plus years. One of the bedrooms had no radiator at all, so I decided to add a new radiator. In the nearest bedroom the radiator had one pipe with a valve (the flow) and one on the other side (return). I assumed the system to be a flow and return installation with this being the last radiator on the circuit (its the furthest from the boiler). I installed some new pipework from the flow pipe of the old rad to the flow side of the new radiator, and some new return pipework from the new radiator to the return off the old radiator. When turning the CH on weird things happend...the return sides of the new and old radiators were heating up first, but the heat was not really flowing through the whole radiator, it was just around the corner. The CH pump sounded a little like it was labouring as well.
Now either I have managed to get the flow and return pipes mixed up (I'm fairly sure I havent) or I now fear I may have a single pipe installation and tried to plumb in the additional radiator as a flow and return.
Can anyone hazard a guess at what may be going on? just an extra bit of information, the radiator in the 3 bedroom (closer to the boiler) is currently not connected and the valves closed off.

rosebery
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Re: Something has gone badly wrong when adding a new radiato

by rosebery » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:12 pm

"I assumed the system to be a flow and return installation with this being the last radiator on the circuit (its the furthest from the boiler). I installed some new pipework from the flow pipe of the old rad to the flow side of the new radiator, and some new return pipework from the new radiator to the return off the old radiator."

Never assume anything


"Now either I have managed to get the flow and return pipes mixed up (I'm fairly sure I havent)..........."

Thats possible.


".....or I now fear I may have a single pipe installation and tried to plumb in the additional radiator as a flow and return."

Thats equally possible.


Get some floorboards up so that you can trace the pipes correctly rather than guessing. That may sound brutally frank but noone on here can see the problem and anything other than my "thats possible" replies above would be further guesswork in these circumstances and of no use to you whatsoever.

Cheers

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