If your radiators aren’t heating up, it can make your home feel cold even when the boiler is running. Most of the time, the cause is simple – trapped air, a stuck valve, or low boiler pressure. Sometimes, the problem is deeper, such as sludge build-up or a faulty pump stopping hot water from circulating properly.
According to the experts at British Gas, chances are radiators need bleeding. The engineers said: “[Bleeding radiators] is easy to do and will have your radiators working as good as new in no time.” If your radiator is hot at the top and cold at the bottom, it doesn’t need bleeding, but if it’s hot at the bottom and cold at the top, turn off the heating and bleed it.
Tools needed to bleed your radiator
Radiator bleed key (or flat head screwdriver for more modern radiators)ClothOld towelContainer
How to bleed a radiator in two simple steps
1. Give it a feel
Turn on the heating and then go around the home and feel the radiators. Check for any cold patches and listen out for odd gurgling sounds.
If a radiator is cold at the top, then it needs bleeding. If it’s not, then just leave it be – you don’t want to bleed a radiator that doesn’t need bleeding.
If you decide you need to bleed the radiators, remember to turn the heating off before moving on to the next step.
2. Release the pressure
Locate the valve and use your radiator key (or screwdriver) to open it by turning it anti-clockwise. If it’s tough to open, use the cloth to get a better grip. Only open it slightly until you hear the hissing noise – that’s air escaping.
Once the sound stops and water starts streaming out, make sure you catch the water in the container. Now it’s time to re-tighten the valve, clean up any excess and move on to the next one
Once you’ve finished, you’ll not only be an expert in bleeding radiators, but your home will almost be back to full heating efficiency.
After bleeding radiators, you need to check your boiler pressure. While it will decrease a bit after bleeding radiators, you want it to be between 1.0 to 1.5 bars when it’s switched off and approximately two bars when it’s on.
