You know the temperature thing you turn round from like 0 to 5 depending on how hot you want it to be? Well I think, in trying to turn it off I may have turned it too far. As the it just keeps turning but in a jerky movement and the number doesn’t change if that makes sense? Like there’s a little plastic arrow that points up at the setting it’s on, so that you know what setting it’s on. But now it’s like the whole thing is turning rather than just the plastic cover with the numbers on.
So I think (well I’m hoping cos the opposite would be worse) that it’s now turned completely off and there is no way to turn it on. But because the whole thing is turning and the numbers don’t change up or down regardless of which way you turn it, it’s possible it could be on any one of the 0-5 settings but only stuck as showing on 0.
Any ideas?
Cheers!
Is this for your home’s water heater? I was initially under the impression this was going to be for your car.
If this is your home’s water heater, it is possible that by turning it off it did turn out. Some water heaters have a pilot light that needs to be lit and by turning it off, you extinguish that flame and it needs to be relit. It depends on each water heater in the manner how you will relight it, but most will have you either turn the knob to a certain point and hold a button while you light it using a match or they will provide another button you press which creates a spark which will hopefully light the pilot light. You need to be watching the pilot flame as you do this to see if the flame sticks. If it does, then you can move the dial to an on position to have the flame fully light up, almost like how a gas flame lights up on your gas stovetop.
All this is general but these directions in between are more direct depending on your specific make and model. The best thing you can do is to either watch a YouTube video on your specific make and model to see how it’s done or look up the manual online. Also, in most cases from the many I’ve seen, they should have these written as directions on the side of the tank. They can often be a bit hard to read and follow for the first time, so be patient and don’t be afraid to re-read sections again a few times to be sure they’re saying what you understood.
There’s no much risk involved here for the most part if you’re safe, but the taking time part is mostly because I’ve had issues pointing the dial to the correct position and it creates confusion and frustration for me. But taking time to re-read it before acting helps reduce those occurrences.
Go look at YouTube videos about thermostatic radiator valves. You can replace the head pretty easily.
Thermostat
If it is broken, they’re inexpensive and typically easy to replace. Usually it’s just one or two pairs of wires: one pair kicks your heat on when connected, the other turns your A/C on when connected. If you don’t have A/C (or have a dedicated thermostat for heat), then it’d probably only have one pair.
They usually have a faceplate part that comes off (the part that you think you may have broken) and a mounted part that stays on the wall usually with two screws.
You might have better luck taking some pictures and posting the question to !homeimprovement@lemmy.world to get some more specific advice.
Cheers, just posted on there. I’ll just attach the picture here anyway as well.
I think it may not be the thing you’re thinking it is, cos yeah nothing to do with A/C, we don’t generally have that in most UK homes unfortunately aha.
Here’s a photo of what I was calling the thermostat (but might not be).
It’s a TRV head. You can unscrew it with the ring under the black area - may need an adjustable spanner to loosen. When you take it off, see if the rotation works and that the pin inside moves up and down. You can also check the metal pin/valve where it attaches isn’t stuck (it may need quite a bit of force to check - could need whacking with a hammer if it’s actually stuck). If everything seems OK, re-attach the head and see if it’s working. If it isn’t, new heads are cheap. What you have looks like what I have - cheap generic TRV heads, easy to find online.
Yeah, thanks. I saw your other posted and added an edit to mine. I was way off.
The house I lived in that had radiator heating used the wall-mounted thermostats to control the boiler. That’s totally different. Hope you get an answer.
Aha I think I get what you’re saying though. There is also a thermostat on the wall downstairs that controls the central heating. So if that is turned off, then my radiator wouldn’t heat up even if I turned the dial from the photo up.
It’s like the main thermostat has executive control (pretty certain of this anyway) but then each room has a radiator which its own controls so if I get too hot I can turn mine off while the rest of the radiators in the house stay on.
I’m guessing you’re not from the UK? The dial, as I’ll now call it, on the radiator is on every radiator I’ve ever seen.
Anyhow dunno why I’m telling you all this cos if you don’t have the same system you’re not gonna be able to help but just as an FYI I guess. Hopefully someone on the other channel is from the UK!
Yep. Mine didn’t have the ones on the radiators, just the wall controller. The only thing on the radiators was a valve which could adjust it a little bit but was mostly just on/off.
No, not from UK, but thought some of the credits would transfer since I’m kinda familiar with HVAC and have had a radiator setup lol.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caleffi-Ecocal-Replacement-Thermostatic-Radiator/dp/B07VGY3J6P/
Look here, just as an example.
You can easily replace it, but pay attention to the size of the thread (after you have unscrewed it). M30x1.5 is the most common, but there are other sizes, too.
Cheers, if I unscrew it, it won’t suddenly start leaking will it? Like is there a way for me to accidentally do that or not? Cos if there’s a way, I’ll find it.
Only touch the screw that is also shown in the Amazon picture. Then the water is safe from you.
typically easy to replace.
Easier in older vehicles, it seems like modern vehicles want to put anything useful underneath about 50 different other things so you have to halfway disassemble the vehicle to get at it.
Houses also have thermostats
You don’t have to tell me how stupid I am, I’m aware lol.
To be fair the description from OP was pretty bad. My mind shifted to cars at first too.
Ahaha yeah a photo was definitely needed. I just said all the words I could think of that might give a clue or be correct lol. I didn’t even know you could upload photos, only been on here for about a week.
Also; I think it’s actually working again now lol. It’s not great, like I was able to turn the “dial” which I wasn’t able to last night, which I think was in part because I was getting burnt trying to do it. But once it was cool I was able to turn it like normal almost, but then the same thing happened again, but because this time it was cold; I was able to get it back into the off position.
So think I will replace it but least it sort of works for now.
I truly mean no disrespect; no one can be good at everything. But if this is the vocabulary you use to describe the object and the problem, it’s probably best to call a pro.
I just love this response so much
I truly mean no disrespect: starts to disrespect. Maybe just don’t reply if you can’t help. Other people have and I now have an idea of the solution and it doesn’t appear to be too hard. I just didn’t know the name of it.
Do you feel good about yourself putting other people down? You’re obviously compensating for something. Your response screams “I’m not doing too well right now and need help”.
No disrespect but I would probably seek professional help rather than wasting your time on here. People who put other people down alwaaaaaays have issues. They’re usually depressed and misery likes company as they say.
I’m perfectly adept at many things. Just not this kind of thing. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. There is literally no value in your response at all. It’s actually incorrect so it’s doing the opposite of helping me. It turns out it’s very easy to fix, there’s YouTube videos that someone helpful who wasn’t looking to put someone down to make themselves feel better for 5 minute.
I pity you and you know what? You deserve that 5 minute of feeling good about yourself, letting off that pent up steam that’s clearly stored up inside you.
No disrespect but you come across as a very sad individual.
But hey, at least you know more about radiators than me.
You really do need to call someone for this, if this is a thermostat valve on a radiator you’re going to burn yourself
I find your response baffling. I think it was completely out-of-pocket but I’m going to extend a one-time olive branch in good faith that there was some sort of misunderstanding.
I am open to a proper explanation as to how specifically it was hurtful or disrespectful. And if it was and I’m missing a social cue here, I would love to know how that equates to such an aggressive response. My absolute best guess is, that you read it as “you can’t be good at anything”, but I said “you can’t be good at everything”, which literally implies that you are good at other things.
I actually was a certified HVAC tech for a few years. I have seen people get seriously hurt not knowing when their system had steam in it or from not being able to control when the boiler kicks on (mostly renters) and steam starts shooting out of the hole mid-repair. I don’t have any way to assess your skills over the internet so I suggested the safe option. Similar logic to, if you don’t know if someone can work on cars, maybe don’t tell them to do their own brakes.
