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Old Sep 17, 2005 | 02:48 PM
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Al Bags
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From: In my GTR Skyline as often as poss ; )
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It MAY be that they need bleeding .. (No-ones really helpin here!) but it sounds like a circulation issue.
Test this by running the system (when calling for heat) Feel the radiators at the inlet pipe and up towards the top .. If a uniform temperature, then it's likely you don't have air in them .. but if unsure, bleed anyways. (top system pressure up to 2 bar first and again afterwards)

Radiators work most efficiently when there is a certain temperature drop across them .. approx 18-20 deg C. No drop means water is rushing through, and dropping your efficiency. A lot of drop means not enough flow. This is what you probably have . Usually this happens when a system is installed and all the lockshield (outlet) valves are left fully open. What then happens is .. The radiators nearest the boiler pump have water rushing through them (easiest path, remember?) and the furthest ones hardly get any flow. The favourite is the bathroom one.
You can "balance" the system like this ...
Open all the rads to full. Start at the rad nearest the pump (boiler in your case) turn the lockshield valve down to a trial amount of say 1 turn open .. then progress in the same way working away from the boiler til you get to the last (usually the coolest running rads) Leave a while and then check the temp drop across them .. 20C is hard to describe .. like difference between hard-to-hold and just hot (temp testers are good for this job) Dont go down much more that 1/4 turn open on the lock shields. In turn, see what you get. This will balance the system so all rads get the approx same flow and heat up at the same rate.

Only other things I can think of is .. especially if 8 or 10 mm Microbore ... there is a manifold with air in it.

Keep your system pressure hot around 1.5 to 2 bar max. Blow off is set to 3bar in most boilers (thats 42 psi)

Hope that helps .. !
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