The Saga of the Heated Towel Rail

On Friday 31st May, Bobby, our (almost) resident joiner commenced work on rebuilding the bathrroom so that a walk in shower could be fitted. Do note the date! I am typing this blog on Monday 12th August, and after having had a new heated towel rail fitted in the bathroom last Friday, Ben, the plumber informed us that it was not heating up properly, and that he suspected a blockage in one of the pipes. He did his best to clear this, but to no avail. The boiler refused to fire up too! I phoned the Gas Board (we have a service contract with them), and the following morning at 8.30 Adele, their engineer arrived. With a deft tweak of the boiler she soon had it working again and heating the water, however she confirmed that there seemed to be a blockage in the pipes supplying the heated towel rail, and said she would return on Monday morning at 8.00 am. She also suggested that we have some thermostatic valves fitted on the bedroom radiators and the dinging room radiator, which will reduce the gas consumption. Unfortunately to trace this blockage may involve ripping up floorboards…….. Adele duly arrived on Monday morning, and after careful consideration she began to take up the carpet and underlay on the landing. She then took up three floorboards, only to discover that the pipes underneath the removed floorbards were the domestic hot and cold water pipes and not the central heating pipes! After this, a colleague called Marie arrived and they decided that they would try and clear the blockage by draining the pipes each side of the heated towel rail and then hand pumping water into the system, under pressure. This they did and after this they decided that there was now no longer a blockage in the pipes. Everything was put back togther and the central heating system turned on. All the rediators heated up as expected, but the heated towel rail was still very slow to heat up. A further engineer was summponned and between the three of them they decided that somewhere in the central heating system the pipe work had been wrongly connected. The only way to eradicate this was……….. You’ve guessd it! to rip up the bedroom floor (which is laminated). We decied we would manage with a slow heating towel rail!