You will need:
- A radiator bleed key
- An absorbent cloth
Difficulty level
Easy
How to bleed a radiator
If you have cold spots at the top of your radiator it’s likely that air is trapped inside which is preventing the hot water from rising to the top. Don’t worry though as this is an easy fix.
- Begin by ensuring your heating system is turned off.
- Using a radiator bleed key and an absorbent cloth, insert the key into the top of the radiator at the end.
- Now as you turn the key anticlockwise you will hear air start to come out of the radiator.Be careful not to fully remove the nipple from the radiator! Half a turn should be enough to allow the air out.
- Once water starts coming out – don’t worry it should only be a small amount – all the air has been removed, turn the key clockwise to close and stop the water.
- If you have a sealed system (you don’t have a water tank) you will need to check the system pressure and adjust as necessary before turning the heating and hot water on again.
Here you can see the pressure on a sealed system has dropped below 1 bar after air was removed from the radiator. For a heating system to work efficiently your system pressure should be between 1 and 1.5 bar on your pressure gauge. If you have a silver filling loop as shown then slowly opening each side of this will allow more water into the system. Remember you want the pressure to be between 1 and 1.5, when you’re there turn off both sides of the filling loop. This is just one method of repressurising a heating system. if this hasn’t worked or you have a different method please get in touch and we will be happy to help.
