Turning off unused radiator

Plumb Bob

Actually, things to check first are (a) whether the pressure is too low (it's easy to turn it up at the pressure-reducing valve); or, (b) if the radiators are full of air (easy to bleed, if the pressure is good).

You should first eliminate simple reasons before considering reasons such as those given by steverino, which cost money to fix.

Shutting off lower-floor radiators won't do anything significant to get water to upper floors. But you didn't need to ask here; you could much more easily have tried it and found out for yourself.

Bill Corff

Hot water radiator

Does it help to shut off any radiators in a hot water system to increase heat to other radiators in the top floors.The ones I want shut off are on the 1st floor in rooms where I don't need that much heat.

Steverino

possibly...

others will provide more insight into this however. If there isn't enough heat at your other radiators it could be due to the following;improperly sized pump (not enough gpm's/head), boiler is sized too small, radiator valves are partially/fully closed (or broken), etc. We'll need to know how the radiators are controlled (thermostatic radiator valves perhaps?).