How to Properly Maintain Your Radiators and Prevent Energy Drains in 2025
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Nothing is more inviting than coming home to a cozy, warm home.
And while there’s a lot of clever tech that will help you control keeping a home warm, ultimately, a lot of it comes down to efficient heating.
If you can heat your home quickly, and your home holds heat well, then it will both feel great and cost a lot less than homes that take so long to heat, that half of the heat generated has escaped by the time you’ve had the boiler on for an hour.
So, to make sure your radiators are in tip-top shape through 2025, the experts at Trade Radiators have paired up with The How-To-Home to put out a helpful radiator maintenance guide.
We’ll cover the common issues, the simple fixes, and the easy checks to keep your home warm this year.
Jump to:
Cold at the top and hot at the bottom
If your radiator feels cold at the top and warm at the bottom, and as a result it heats a room half as quickly as usual, there is a good chance that it just needs a bleed.
What to look for:
Check to see if your radiator pipes at the floor and the bottom third of your radiator feel warm, when spot-checking heating.
Many will only check the top and assume that the radiator isn’t working, but a cold-top and hot bottom is a lot more common.
What caused it:
Wet clothes draped over the top are the most common culprit, as they cover the vents and trap heat. This will then form little air bubbles which further traps heat, and causes heat to not make its way to the top of the radiator,
How to sort it:
This is a remarkably simple job; all you have to do is bleed your radiator.
Find and control the gas guzzler radiators
Not all radiators are made equal; each radiator has its own output and in a lot of homes you’ll find that a big powerful radiator is being wasted in a small space.
What to look for:
If you don’t know what kind of radiators you have, manufacturer names are often on the side - sometimes covered by layers of paint!
You can cross reference that with the height and width of your radiator to find the output of the model, or a closest match online to find your radiator’s output.
Then it’s a case of using a BTU heating calculator to see if the output matches the size of the room that you’re in.
The information might also be included in your home report.
What caused it:
These big radiators that have high outputs use up a disproportionate amount of your boiler's heated water, and if it’s a small, low traffic room then your heating is being wasted.
How to sort it:
See if your radiator has a valve and make sure it’s on the lowest setting. If it doesn’t have a valve, you might want to consider investing in a smart thermostatic radiator valve.
Famine or the feast heating
When a house is freezing when the heating is off, and warm when it’s on, it’s usually a sign of a few contributing issues.
What to look for:
If you need your boiler back on less than 30 minutes after it has gone off, but need to take your sweater off whenever it is on then your heating and heat efficiency may need to be looked at.
What caused it:
There are two issues here. Firstly, your heating is too powerful, so same as above, you need to control output, secondly, your house likely has some insulation issues.
How to sort it:
Sorting the ‘famine’ issue is the same as sorting the gas guzzler issue in that using your valve to control output should do the trick. As for the insulation issue, we’ll cover some quick, easy and cost effective fixes in more detail:
It’s not just the radiators that are getting in the way of a comfy warm home
Adding more furnishings to a room is an easy, cost-effective way to keep the cold out and the heat in. Rugs, heavy blinds, and under-door draught excluders can each make a noticeable impact, but when used together, the difference can be significant.
Well-insulated windows are also key to maintaining warmth. If cold air is sneaking in, hot air is also escaping. The experts at Trade Radiators recommend sealing gaps with insulating strips or caulking, but even simple solutions like bubble wrap can help. Just don’t tape your windows shut, as it is a fire hazard.
Here’s to a cosy and cost-effective 2025
Hopefully this will help with any home heating issues you have been experiencing.
Remember, a warmer house doesn’t have to cost more when you’re clever about your home heating.
Here’s to a warm home this year without having to bump up your heating bills.
