Emergency radiator repairs south east London
Emergency radiator repairs in
south east London have clearly shown me the amount of
nonsense customers are told by incompetent "plumbers", and those
that can only be described as con artists over the years.
If the information below indicates that you need a repair or
replacement, or you simply want to ask a question, ring:
Mon-Fri 08.30-20.30
0208 265 8822
Emergencies and out of hours 07852 736 626
Apart from you just wanting a new one because it looks nicer,
there are only two reasons to replace
radiators. When the
radiator itself is leaking, it really is better to get a new one.
Quite often however, reported radiator leaks are actually radiator valve leaks.
The only other valid reason is when the room has never been warm
enough because the
radiator is too small.
You may think, or have been told, that you need one or more
replaced. If you are not quite sure about it, follow this simple
check-list to find out.
Is the
radiator itself leaking, or is it the valve?
If you can clearly see water appearing anywhere that is not close
to a bleeding point or a radiator valve connection, it is time to get a
catalogue and choose a new on. Anything else probably means you
don't have to go that far.
Leaks coming from somewhere around the valves can most of the
time be repaired by replacing the radiator valve, complete with what is know as
"the tail". This is a lot quicker, a lot less intrusive and usually
a lot cheaper as well.
The same goes for the bleeding screws. Good
radiators
are designed in such a way that you can take the leaking bleeding
screw out as a unit, and put a new one back in its place. In all the
emergency radiator repairs that I have done as a central heating engineer in south east London, I have only come across one brand
that still screws the bleeding nipples directly into the radiator.
It is also this type that is commonly sold in popular diy stores.
They may be cheaper than the other model, but the common problem of
leaking bleeders on this one is usually no possible to repair.
Does a certain room not get warm enough any more?
If the room used to be nice and warm, chances are that the
problem lies somewhere else. Unless something has changed like more
ventilation/draft or the room has been enlarged, the heat demand has
remained the same.
During the years that I have been doing
emergency radiator repairs
in
south east London I have found that the problem in most cases
is a blockage caused by dirt/debris floating around in the system.
If this is the case, installing a new rad is absolutely pointless.
One real tell tale sign of dirt in the system is when one or more
rads get hot unevenly.
Flushing is one remedy.
Other possible reasons for a room not reaching the desired
temperature any more are:
The boiler not producing enough heat.
Too much heat "drawn away" by other sources. This is often the
case with systems that use a cylinder. For optimum performance of
both, the central heating and the hot water should never be on at
the same time; it is amazing how many central heating engineers don't know this.
The boiler thermostat may be set too low. As a rule of thumb, the
boiler thermostat on non-condensing boilers should be set at about
80-90% of maximum.
Are some rooms much warmer than others?
Your system might not be correctly balanced. This is one of the
most common problems I have come across. The amount of times that I
have gone out to do
emergency radiator repairs in
south east
London, and found nothing wrong apart from dirt and the need
for balancing, beggars believe.
Much as I believe it is better to repair things than to throw
them a way, radiators are the exception that proves the rule. I have
done
emergency radiator repairs in
south east London, and other
places of course, for many years and found that virtually all leaks
are caused by corrosion from inside.
That means that when a leak appears, there are probably several
others waiting to happen. You can test the strength of a radiator
(you may not have the tools, but I do ) but to do that properly, you
have to remove it and take it somewhere safe. As the chances that
the rad can be kept are pretty slim, the labour costs involved in
this exercise are not really warranted unless it is a really
expensive model.
Mon-Fri 08.30-20.30
0208 265 8822
Emergencies and out of hours 07852 736 626
For a high quality
emergency radiator repair in
south east London.
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