Cold batteries in winter are an emergency that requires an immediate solution. To fix serious problems, you should hire specialists, but some problems can be dealt with on your own. Even if the owner of an apartment or house does not intend to repair the heating on his own, it will not hurt him to know about the signs and causes of malfunctions.
Signs and causes of poor heating performance
| Characteristic signs | Possible reasons |
| The riser is cold | Technical faults outside the apartment |
| The riser is hot, the batteries are cold | Valves are closed, heating system is clogged |
| Cold bottom of radiator | Valves are not open enough, radiators are clogged, low coolant pressure in pipes |
| Cold top of batteries | Airlock |
| The last radiator in the system is cold | System not adjusted, insufficient pressure |
| The part of the radiator farthest from the connection pipes is cold | Insufficient pressure, clogged battery, air lock |
An analysis of the events preceding their occurrence will help identify the causes of malfunctions.
| Work carried out, operating features | Possible faults |
| Replacement of heating devices, pipes | Air lock due to air entering the system or changes in pipe slopes. Clogged pipes and radiators. Reduced flow areas due to errors during system assembly |
| The heating system works without maintenance for many years | Scale has formed, the heat transfer of the batteries has deteriorated, and parts of the shut-off valves have become “stuck” |
| Start of the heating season | The boiler room did not reach its design capacity, employees of the relevant services forgot to open the valves, and air pockets formed when the system was filling. |
| Neighbors were doing renovations | Reduced pressure in the system due to unprofessional actions of neighbors |
First of all, if the heating is poor, interview the residents of the house. If they have the same problem, it means that the boiler room is not working well or the valves in the basement of the house are closed. In these cases, you should jointly contact the management company. If only one apartment is cold, check that the valves are open and there are no air pockets. Call a specialist through the dispatcher of the organization serving the house.
What to do if the engine overheats
First of all, it should be remembered that if the overheating is short-term (for example, the temperature needle rises in a traffic jam), then you should observe whether the temperature will drop after you start driving (counter air flow appears) or as a result of turning on the radiator fan.
If the car was already in motion and the engine temperature reached a critical level, you should not immediately turn off the engine. Also, you should not try to cool the engine by pouring water on it from outside, pouring cold water into the radiator, etc. Such actions will lead to the need to repair the internal combustion engine, and it may be necessary to change the BC and cylinder head.
To “cool down” the engine, you will need to pull off the road (if possible), stop the car and then turn the heater on to maximum, while the engine must continue to idle.
Next, you need to wait a few minutes, while simultaneously inspecting for obvious and strong signs of antifreeze/antifreeze leakage under the car or in the engine compartment. If no leaks are visible, but the temperature does not drop, the unit must be turned off.
Please note that you need to immediately turn off the engine when steam starts coming out from under the hood; traces of intense coolant leakage are clearly visible. In this case, the engine must be stopped, without expecting that turning on the stove will reduce the heating
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Basic malfunctions of heating systems and their elimination
Air jams
Air pockets occur in radiators and pipes and interfere with the normal circulation of water in the heating system. They appear for various reasons:
- violation of the technology for filling the system with water after the summer period;
- non-compliance with water deaeration regime;
- performing repairs with disassembling pipelines;
- failure to observe slopes when installing the heating system;
- air leakage through leaky joints.
To remove air from the system, use a Mayevsky valve installed on the radiator. You should open it, wait until the air comes out, the hissing stops, and the water begins to pour out calmly without bubbles. After this, the valve is closed. Don't forget to provide a container or towel to drain the water.
Old cast iron batteries do not have Mayevsky taps. The air is released without completely unscrewing the plugs at the ends of the radiators. It is better to entrust this operation to plumbers - if you unscrew the plug completely, you can flood the apartment.
Malfunctions of shut-off valves
Valves may be in the closed position, and control devices may be incorrectly configured.
Malfunctions of the shut-off valves cannot be ruled out. If the riser is hot and the radiators are cold, you should check the position of the valves - at the entrances to the radiators they should be open, at the jumper between the supply and drain they should be closed. Over time, valve parts become covered with scale and dirt. Leaks occur or the valve does not turn at all. An inspection of the faucet will help to clean the parts from deposits. A radical solution to the problem is to completely replace the entire device or the valve head.
Clogging
When the system is clogged, pipes and radiators become completely or partially clogged with various deposits. A sign of blockage is dirty water from Mayevsky’s tap. Scale on the internal surfaces of radiators has heat-insulating properties and reduces the heat transfer of heating devices. To clean batteries:
- remove;
- disassembled into sections;
- placed in a bathtub on a soft bedding;
- washed with a stream of water under pressure;
- fill with a solution of vinegar or soda ash;
- perform repeated washing;
- assembled and installed.
Cleaning dirty pipes requires special equipment. This work should be entrusted to specialists.
Insufficient pressure in the system and low coolant temperature
When the risers are lukewarm, the coolant is at a low temperature or is supplied under insufficient pressure. The reasons may be:
- actions of neighbors to “improve” the heating system (exceeding the calculated diameter of pipes, the number of radiator sections, changing the connection diagram, installing water-heated floors);
- incorrect position of valves in heat supply networks;
- poor boiler room performance.
In any of the described cases, you cannot cope with the problem yourself - you should contact the management company.
Incorrect heating system setting
A sign of incorrect settings of the heating system is different temperatures of the batteries connected to the same riser. Most of the coolant enters one radiator, the other remains cold. To eliminate the problem, open the valve more on a cold battery and close it a little on a hot one. If there is no change, the cold radiator is probably clogged.
How to clean clogged batteries
- To clean the radiator from debris and dirt, you will have to remove the device and wash it. Before starting the procedure, prepare the area for cleaning. It is better to clean radiators outside or in the bathroom;
- First cover the bathtub with a thick cloth and insert a protective mesh into the drain hole to avoid damage to the enamel surface of the plumbing fixtures and prevent clogging of the pipeline;
- Close the valves and unscrew the nuts, carefully drain the remaining water, remove the radiator and place it outside or in the bathroom;
- Tap each section with a hammer or mallet to help the rust and plaque fall off quickly. Then carefully shake out any accumulated debris from inside;
- For washing, use a special sealed hose to clean the battery under high pressure. Simply rinsing the device under the tap or in a basin will not clean it. Special cleaning agents can also be used along with water. To be effective, pour hot water into the radiator and leave for half an hour, and then rinse;
- If the radiator is severely clogged, most likely the other radiators are also clogged. In this case, you will have to wash each battery. Many bimetallic radiators are washed extremely rarely, so a large amount of solid particles and debris accumulates inside. In addition, plaque and rust may appear;
- When cleaning yourself, be careful, as you can easily get burned due to the hot coolant. It is better to entrust the work to specialists. If you want to do the procedure yourself, you will find useful tips and tricks in the article “How to clean a radiator.”
Heating faults in private houses
Autonomous heating systems of private houses have their own characteristics and are characterized by specific malfunctions.
Problems with the boiler
The most common problems are related to the incorrect operation of the built-in automation system. If you cannot adjust the automation yourself, contact a company that provides service for boilers of this type.
The automation system will not allow the boiler to turn on if there is insufficient draft (the chimney is clogged with soot) or low pressure in the system. To eliminate the causes, you should clean the chimney, check the water level in the expansion tank and the operation of the circulation pumps.
Another cause of problems is insufficient boiler power. Symptom: the automatic system does not turn off the boiler; it works constantly. The solution is to replace the boiler with a more powerful one.
Wrong choice of heating system
Single-pipe heating systems are cheaper than double-pipe heating systems, but are only suitable for heating small houses. The last battery from the boiler will be colder than the previous ones. This problem can only be eliminated by replacing the system with a two-pipe one.
Other problems are similar to malfunctions of heating systems in apartment buildings and are discussed above.
What are the reasons for radiators not fully warming up?
- The last radiator in the heating system does not heat up - the reason is insufficient power of the circulation pump, non-observance of angles and slopes when installing the pipeline.
- The lower part of the heating radiator does not warm up completely - this problem is usually typical for aluminum heating radiators. In some cases, the cause is an incorrectly set mode of the thermostat installed on the coolant supply to the battery.
Preventing heating problems
Preventative work should be performed in the summer. It is better to combine them with major or current repairs. For the heating system to work properly, you need to:
- analyze the heating operation in the previous winter, find weak points;
- check the operation of shut-off valves, repair or replace faulty ones;
- if Mayevsky taps or valves for supplying coolant to heating devices are missing, they should be installed;
- check the slopes of the supply pipes, eliminate violations, if this is not possible, install Mayevsky taps in problem areas;
- flush or replace radiators that did not heat up enough during the previous heating season.
Prepare your heating system for operation in the summer and the likelihood of failures will be greatly reduced.
An unbalanced system stops working
Also, the main and main reason why there is a cold heating riser in an apartment is mass construction, when the main task was to build as much cheap housing as possible in the shortest possible time. It’s not that the walls didn’t retain heat, which is why the room is cold when the radiators are hot, and people didn’t think about saving heat, because it used to be cheap. But people tend to freeze, they think about how to insulate a cold wall in an apartment and buy more and more radiators for their apartments, which are installed for them by people who are far from the correct installation of heating equipment. The time has come when the equipment of boiler rooms and in-house systems simply can no longer cope with the load. Their work is ineffective.
