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Some Radiators Cold

The useful information is not that a radiator is cold. It is which ones are cold, and that is a pattern you can map in five minutes.

In brief

One cold radiator is a different fault from a whole cold floor. A single cold one is usually trapped air or a stuck valve; a whole floor, or one end of the house, points instead at circulation, the pump, or a zone that is never being called.

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One radiator cold, everything else fine

A single cold emitter in an otherwise working system is local: air trapped at the high point, a closed valve, or a blockage in that one run. It is the least serious version of this complaint and the commonest.

Cold at the top and warm at the bottom is the classic air signature. Cold at the bottom and warm at the top is not air, and it is a different conversation.

A whole floor cold

That is a zone rather than a radiator. Most systems divide the house into zones with their own circulator or valve, and a whole floor going cold points at that zone’s control rather than at any of the emitters on it.

Everything lukewarm

If the entire system is warm but never hot, the boiler is firing and the heat is not getting where it should — circulation, or the temperature the boiler is being asked for. On a system with automatic temperature adjustment, which DOE requires on gas and oil hot water boilers, that control is part of the picture.

Source: US Department of Energy, Energy Conservation Standards for Residential Boilers.

Nothing hot at all

Then it is not a distribution problem. Start with power, the thermostat and the pressure gauge, in that order.

Why the pattern is worth writing down

Because it survives the visit. A system that misbehaves intermittently may behave perfectly while somebody is standing in front of it, and a note saying which rooms were cold and at what time of day is evidence that the appliance itself will not provide.

A boiler is not a furnace, and the person you want knows the difference.Tell us it is a boiler, tell us what the gauge reads if you can see it, and we will route you to somebody in your area who works on them. You are never charged. Boilers give this site its name and not its limits.

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