Radiators will feel ‘hotter and heat up faster’ – DIY tasks
With the colder months setting in, it is important to make sure your radiators are keeping you and your home nice and toasty. Having a freezing house during winter is definitely not ideal, so a plumber has shared his advice to make sure you’re making the most of your radiators.
Zhelyazko Yanchev, a plumber from Fantastic Services, explains there are “plenty of ways to make radiators hotter, and heat up faster, without buying a new boiler and using expensive or specialist tools”. He continued: “Hot water radiator systems are very simple and the problems are likely as simple, too.”
1. Keep radiators and surrounding areas clean and unobstructed
This is perhaps the most effective method to maximise the heat coming from your radiator. Placing items on or beneath the radiator will likely disrupt the heat. Zhelyazko advises that you should remove any items positioned on, in or underneath them.
“Radiators works on the principle that hot air rises by natural convection. Cold air is drawn up the radiator at the bottom and rises out warm at the top,” he explained.
Dusting your radiator will also have a similar effect, as large clumps of dust can severely hinder its efficiency. Dusting can then allow air to circulate properly through them again.
2. Bleed your radiators
It’s not an uncommon problem for your radiator to feel warm at the bottom but cold at the top, and it can feel especially frustrating when you don’t know what is wrong.
However, the cause of this is air trapped inside that is taking up space that water should be filling. The plumber says that: “You can quickly increase the radiator’s performance by bleeding this air out.”
3. Remove radiator sludge
If your heat problem is the other way round, with the top being hot and the bottom being cold, it could be because there is a sludge build up inside it.
This sludge is made up of a combination of rust, dirt and limescale that accumulates over time, and is also one of the leading causes of faulty boilers. You can fix this by hiring a professional plumber to do a system-wide power flush, or doing it yourself.
