Are radiators supposed to be hot to touch?

Are radiators supposed to be hot to touch?

A smooth and efficient central heating system is incredibly important to the average UK household. Throughout the vast majority of the year, our central heating is required in one way or another, and is vital for maintaining a high quality of living, particularly in the winter months.

While it's recommended that your boiler and heating system is serviced annually, problems can occur in between these checks. Therefore it's important to diagnose a problem such as overly-hot radiators and get it sorted as as soon as possible.

Are hot radiators unsafe?

There's radiators that get hot enough to adequately heat the room and then there's radiators that are too hot to touch and pumping out far too much heat.

If your radiators are too hot to the touch then this is of concern, especially if you have young children. Young children often find a way of touching things they shouldn't and will also grab onto the nearest thing to balance or pull themselves up. Needless to say, a young child's hand touching a scalding hot radiator is a recipe for disaster and can result in serious injury.

A too-hot radiator can also damage furniture, if the furniture is pressed up against it and while not an out and out fire hazard, flammable materials coming into contact with something very hot is not worth risking and is best avoided.

What causes radiator to get too hot?

There are several reasons why a radiator might get hotter than they should.

Faulty thermostat

Your central heating thermostat is that little dial (often in the living room) on the wall that controls the temperature in your home. The thermostat can detect the air temperature in the home in accordance with the temperature you've set and will communicate with your central heating system to maintain that temperature.

A fully-functional thermostat will detect when the home gets too hot or too old and will pass that message on to your boiler so your home remains within the set temperature parameters.

If there is fault with your thermostat, it may not be detecting that the temperature in your home is too hot and therefore will not communicate that the radiators need less hot water in them. A faulty thermostat could also affect the hot water coming out of your taps.

If you think this might be the case then it's best to call in a professional immediately. A faulty thermostat not only makes the ambient temperature uncomfortable, but could also cause other components in your heating system to overheat and fail.

Faulty diverter valve

Applicable to those with a combi boiler, a diverter valve helps to control the flow of hot water to your radiators or hot taps. For example, if you're running your central heating, then switch on a hot tap, the diverter valve will adjust itself to divert enough hot water away from the radiators to that hot tap. It's a very efficient way of ensuring that hot water is delivered exactly when and where it is needed.

As the diverter valve open and closes countless times throughout the day, over a period of time it ca become clogged with debris and get stuck. It could be responsible for delivering too much hot water to your radiators and making them feel overly hot.

This is not a problem the average person can fix, so it is definitely advisable to call in a professional.

Faulty thermostatic valve

If your radiator has old or seldom-used thermostatic radiator valves (the kind with a dial and numbers), then the pin inside the valve may have become stuck to the 'On' position. Normally, a thermostatic radiator valve can detect how hot it is in the room and will stop any more hot water from flowing into the radiator accordingly. If the pin is stuck then water could just be flowing into the radiator regardless of how hot the room is.

You can check if this is the problem by removing the chunky cap off of the valve and inspecting the pin. The pin should move up and down when pressed though if it's stuck, using a pair of pliers and wiggling the pin up and down should free it up. Alternatively, you could replace the valve completely.

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Thermostatic Valves at Trade Radiators

If you find you do need new thermostatic radiator valve, then Trade Radiators provide an unrivalled selection, from modern to traditional, copper to chrome, thermostatic to manual we should have a set to suit your requirements. Many people are making the switch from traditional manual valves to something which can afford the user a bit more versatility and control when heating any space.

Please click below to view our comprehensive range of TRVs to suit all styles, tastes and types of radiator. All our valves come with extensive guarantees and free 24hr delivery.

Are radiators supposed to be hot to touch?

View All Our Thermostatic Radiator Valves

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Should radiators get too hot to touch?

A too-hot radiator can also damage furniture, if the furniture is pressed up against it and while not an out and out fire hazard, flammable materials coming into contact with something very hot is not worth risking and is best avoided.

Why are my radiators really hot?

The diverter goes into a 'mid position', which allows the hot water to flow to both the water tank and the radiators. When a diverter fails or gets blocked with debris, hot water intended for the hot water circuit can get into the radiator circuit. Then the radiators will be hot even though the heat is turned off.

Is the whole radiator supposed to be hot?

We all know that heat rises, so having a radiator that's cooler at the bottom than the top might not seem like cause for alarm. However, radiators are designed to emit heat evenly once your central heating has kicked in - they should never be colder at the top or cold at the bottom once the system is up to temperature.

How hot should radiator get?

So what's a normal temperature for your vehicle's engine? Most experts agree that your engine should run between 195 degrees and 220 degrees.