How To Fix A Thermostatic Radiator Valve

The temperatures are cooling, and winter’s on its way, so you turn the heating on for the first time since spring. The radiators start pushing out heat, and your house starts warming up, except for one room, where the radiators stone cold for some reason, what’s going on?

There are various reasons why a single radiator’s not getting hot, and the most common cause is the pin in your Thermostatic radiator valves stuck.

Thermostatic Radiator Valves are wonderful inventions allowing the perfect heat setting for each room. The valves incorporate a pin that opens and closes regulating the flow of hot water to the radiator and regulating the temperature in the room.

When the pin gets jammed in the closed position, it will let little to no hot water into your radiator

The pin does get sometimes stuck it’s very common when the heating hasn’t been turned on for a few months.

The good news is the pin can easily be unstuck, anyone with basic DIY skills and tools to hand can do this quickly

If you’re unsure use a professional Plumber

You will need a pair of mole grips and some WD40 or similar lubricating spray. Pliers will work but are not recommended, as it’s possible to pull the pin out and drop it, and if the pin goes down the floorboards or you can’t find it, you’ll be calling an emergency Plumber as water floods your house.

You can still pull the pin out with mole grips, but at least the pin will stay in the mole grips so you can quickly pop it back in.

1. First of all, remove the heat control off of the top of the Thermostatic Radiator Valve, on most models you have to rotate the screw top under the control head to achieve this
2. Now you will see the pin give this a push with a flat part of your mole grips if it doesn’t move then it’s stuck, if the pin pushes down ok then it’s probably something else preventing your radiator from heating up.
3. Spray some WD40 onto the pin and clamp the pin securely into your mole grips
4. Pull the pin up and down a few times with your mole grips be careful not to pull the pin out, if you do pull it out push it back in immediately (clear up the water that sprayed out afterwards)
5. Replace the control head

Now your radiator should be working if not the next step will be to Bleed all the radiators in your system and if the radiator still doesn’t work you probably have a more complex issue feel free to give us a call.