How to bleed a radiator

6 easy steps

If you started noticing that your radiator does not heat up as it used to, than you should read this article

• Hot water radiators are easier to maintain in comparison with air radiators;

• It is good to have your system checked every year or so;

• Besides the specialist check up, you can also do things by yourself.

Do your radiators need bleeding?

In order to do that, take the following steps:

• Turn on the central heating system

• Feel the temperature in the lower part of the radiator

• Compare the temperature with that on the top of the radiator

If there is a strong difference, the radiator certainly needs bleeding.

What’s the problem?

The fact that air accumulates in the hot water system and this will mean that you will not get the amount of full amount of warmth that you are supposed to receive. When you notice that you don’t get the same amount of warmth from your radiator as you used to have than it is high time you thought about bleeding the pipes.

What’s the benefit of bleeding?

By bleeding you, you improve your home’s heat efficiency and you can actually save money as well. Because the air is not an effective heat conductor as compared with water, it can become costly to run the radiator with air inside since you would not be getting

How to do it?

1. Start with the radiator that is furthest from the system (the amount of air accumulated is highest there).

2. Turn on the system and wait for it to heat up (turn the water supply on in case you turned it off during the year).

3. Wait for it to heat up and turn the central heating system off again. The reason for turning it off again is reducing the possibility of importing even more air into the system.

4. Carefully use a bleed key to open the bleed valve; the bleed key is an item that usually comes with a brand new radiator - it can be purchased separately though (the bleed valve can be found at the top of the radiator or on some types of radiators at the back). You can see bellow exactly the way a bleed key looks like.

5. Put a piece of cloth around the key to catch any dropping water (have a small bowl prepared as well for small drops of water).

6. Use the key to open the valve; turn the bleed just ¼ first and then, ½ anti clockwise, if still needed; you are going to release the air that is within the system; don’t get scared – it may sound like an aggressive hiss but it is just the air from the radiator that will be followed by water as soon as it gets out of the system; once there is only water coming out, make sure to close it back.

7. Turn the heat back on

Observation: If the central heating system is a sealed system, you should check the pressure and reduce it. Because there are different pressure levels for different heating systems, you should consult the manuals. Also, sometimes it is necessary to bleed the radiator several times, particularly when you have more radiators in your house; set the pressure, bleed the radiators and set the pressure again. Bleed valves tend to get damaged most of the times because they are made of soft metal; if you cannot open it with an ordinary valve, you should consider opening it with an adjustable spanner.

Warning: Pay attention to old radiators; because of microbiological accumulation, the pressure of the air emerging from the radiator might be very high; be careful about the environment around the radiator.

Final Step:

Check for any leakages; it is normal for the pipe connection to wear out or for the valve connection to get loose over time.

If you notice any water leakage around the valve, you should consider either changing the valve or the packing (the small string that goes around the valve); if you change the packing, turn off the supply valve first and then retighten the packing

In case this did not close the problem, you might consider balancing central heating radiators. In case you want see a radiator bleeding it practically, you can check out this video demo. Good luck!

Copyright 2008, http://www.tradeplumbing.co.uk all rights reserved. This article was written by Sam Brown, Marketing Manager at TradePlumbing. Tradeplumbing.co.uk is a trading name of Clayton Horsnell LTD, a privately held company with headquarters in Colchester, UK, providing a wide variety of plumbing products starting with bathroom suites, baths, showers, towel rails, furniture, sinks, heating system, and radiators and finishing with taps and water treatment products.

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