I have a baxi burmuda boiler(old style boilers), when turned on it heats up the house most of the time and the central hot water works fine but the radiator in the sitting room has never come on . I have had my boiler serviced this year by a corgi registered Engineer who advised me that the radiator is blocked and he would charge me £170 to replace it. The radiator has been bleed but the pipes connected to the radiator still feels very cold. Can anyone advise me on what to do next "eg checking the pump etc"

Brian, December 2006

Just turn off the rad at both ends with the heating off, then get a small bowl put it under the pipe where they join the rad, loosen it off , it will leak water , you keep going until the rad is empty. then undo both ends all the way, lift out the rad take it to the back garden and run a hosepipe through it until the water is clean. put it back on the wall and open the valves either end again it should solve the problem, you will need to bleed agin though.

brad, May 2008

close both valves on radiater,loosen one side radiater,wait for it to drain .ones drained ,take radiater out ,take it outside flush it with water hose,it should do the job..do not forget to put container under radiater for water??

javid, January 2008

If the rest of your downstairs rads work, it is not your pump...

The engineer sounds as though he knows what he is talking about... My advice, turn both the valves off, drain the rad and remove it from the wall... With a bucket, open up each valve allowing the water to be captured into the bucket - This will prove that your pipes are clear... If water comes out both valves, it's your rad, otherwise you will need to look into changing your rad-valves/clearing a blocked pipe (V.Expensive).

If it is your rad and you are on a tight budget, take the rad outside, open up a man-hole cover and attatch a hose to one end of the rad... Turn the hose on full and kick the rear of the radiator with steel toe-capped footwear (Or dense rubber mallet) and this will help flush out the sludge build up in the rad itself... Routinely swap ends and repeat this process until water starts running relatively cleanly and freely from the other end of the radiator.


- PS... If you can't take the rad off the wall due to your level of experience, you will normally pay more for flushing a rad than replacing one!

GasAid.co.uk, December 2006