Has anyone been Powerflushed (central heating - nothing medical!). It was
recently recommended by my "friendly" service engineer but I was
staggered by the cost ~£550. This seems a lot to pay for one man and a
pump for the day? Got another quote for around £400 but that still
seems pricey.

Anyone had it done/know if it is worth it/recommend an alternative.

Thanks

JohnW

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
JohnW wrote:

Has anyone been Powerflushed (central heating - nothing medical!).
It was recently recommended by my "friendly" service engineer but I
was staggered by the cost ~£550. This seems a lot to pay for one man
and a pump for the day? Got another quote for around £400 but that
still seems pricey.

Anyone had it done/know if it is worth it/recommend an alternative.

Thanks

JohnW

The alternative, which is *much* cheaper - and probably better - but more
work, is to remove all the radiators, take them outside, and blast the crud
out with a hosepipe. And wash out the pipes to each rad while it is removed.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:22:45 GMT, "JohnW"
wrote:

Has anyone been Powerflushed (central heating - nothing medical!). It was
recently recommended by my "friendly" service engineer but I was
staggered by the cost ~£550. This seems a lot to pay for one man and a
pump for the day? Got another quote for around £400 but that still
seems pricey.

I bet he was friendly. This is money for old rope. He is not likely
to take the whole day over it.

There are a few alternatives.

a) Rent the machine and chemicals and do the job yourself for less
than half this price.

b) Desludge and clean the system by draining and removing the
radiators and flushing them outside. Not too much fun in this
weather. I've posted a detailed procedure for this in the past and
you can find it through Google Groups.

c) If sludging is very light - e.g. no cool spots in the centre
bottoms of radiators and all working OK, then you can try a chemical
flushing agent such as Fernox or Sentinel. You add this stuff and run
the system hot for the recommended period - few hours to a few days.
This is not satisfactory for badly sludged systems though and worth
using after b) above.


With any, do bear in mind that sludge is basically iron salts and
these make an indellible dye with great affinity for decorations and
carpets so take appropriate precautions.

In all cases make sure that an inhibitor is added afterwards and
concentration maintained. This way, you will avoid the problem in the
future.




Anyone had it done/know if it is worth it/recommend an alternative.

Thanks

JohnW



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

The " alternative " although well intended advice is only doing part of the
job. The sludge/ deposits are still left in some of the system so you have
taken ages removing radiators, washing them out ( which does not cleanse
them ) washing water through the pipes, replacing the radiators, refilling
the system ( hoping that everything goes ok ) and the firing up the system.
But alas you still have sludge/ deposits still in the system which starts
the corrosion cycle off once again. We use a powerflushing pump on all
installations and it is amazing that even the clean systems when cleansed
and flushed give up some dirty water. Yes it is easy money, even at our £350
charge but many customers with corroded systems tell us it has made a big
difference. I would say this though. It seems that many installers are
informing customers of the need for a powerflush with a view to making money
and if you tested a large number of heating systems it would show that
indeed the system had no inhibitor so the installer would not be lying, but
bending the truth for gain maybe?
"Set Square" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
JohnW wrote:

Has anyone been Powerflushed (central heating - nothing medical!).
It was recently recommended by my "friendly" service engineer but I
was staggered by the cost ~£550. This seems a lot to pay for one man
and a pump for the day? Got another quote for around £400 but that
still seems pricey.

Anyone had it done/know if it is worth it/recommend an alternative.

Thanks

JohnW

The alternative, which is *much* cheaper - and probably better - but more
work, is to remove all the radiators, take them outside, and blast the
crud
out with a hosepipe. And wash out the pipes to each rad while it is
removed.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:46:36 +0000, wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:52:21 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:


c) If sludging is very light - e.g. no cool spots in the centre
bottoms of radiators and all working OK, then you can try a chemical
flushing agent such as Fernox or Sentinel. You add this stuff and run
the system hot for the recommended period - few hours to a few days.
This is not satisfactory for badly sludged systems though and worth
using after b) above.

Thanks for that useful info Andy.

Before I try this, a quick question.

Can I just add the flushing agent to the system as it is now or should
I drain, fill and then add the flushing agent?

Thanks
Bob

Definitely flush and drain before adding flushing agent - i.e. get as
much stuff out of the system as you can.

But before doing this, do check the radiators for cold spots and also
when you drain, let the sediment settle and see if there is a lot of
solid material. If there is, then you really need to do a) or b)





--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Andy Hall wrote:

In all cases make sure that an inhibitor is added afterwards and
concentration maintained. This way, you will avoid the problem in the
future.

I recently tried to add inhibitor to my sealed-combi system. With the system
drained down, I was still unable to get the stuff in (via one of the rads)
without it spilling out all over the place, even though the rad itself was
empty. Is there some special kind of funnel available which fits properly
onto the rad to prevent this?

KotF

"Kenny of the Fells" wrote in message
...
Andy Hall wrote:

In all cases make sure that an inhibitor is added afterwards and
concentration maintained. This way, you will avoid the problem in the
future.

I recently tried to add inhibitor to my sealed-combi system. With the
system
drained down, I was still unable to get the stuff in (via one of the rads)
without it spilling out all over the place, even though the rad itself was
empty. Is there some special kind of funnel available which fits properly
onto the rad to prevent this?

You can get inhibitor in a tube like mastic. Just turn off the rad, remove
the bleed screw, screw the plastic nozzle from the tube into bleed screw
hole, turn on the rad and squirt the stuff in. Only takes a few seconds.

Rgds

Andy R

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 10:04:49 -0000, "Andy R"
wrote:


"Kenny of the Fells" wrote in message
...
Andy Hall wrote:

In all cases make sure that an inhibitor is added afterwards and
concentration maintained. This way, you will avoid the problem in the
future.

I recently tried to add inhibitor to my sealed-combi system. With the
system
drained down, I was still unable to get the stuff in (via one of the rads)
without it spilling out all over the place, even though the rad itself was
empty. Is there some special kind of funnel available which fits properly
onto the rad to prevent this?

You can get inhibitor in a tube like mastic. Just turn off the rad, remove
the bleed screw, screw the plastic nozzle from the tube into bleed screw
hole, turn on the rad and squirt the stuff in. Only takes a few seconds.

Rgds

Andy R


This does work well. However, it is better to drain the individual
radiator to do it rather than doing what the manufacturer suggests and
injecting against the pressure. The little nozzle doesn't make a
particularly good seal and water will tend to squirt past it.



--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Surely the radiators are a minor part of the problem - small pipes with dips
or low spots will cause big problems.

--


Regards

John


"Andy Hall" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:46:36 +0000, wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 19:52:21 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:


c) If sludging is very light - e.g. no cool spots in the centre
bottoms of radiators and all working OK, then you can try a chemical
flushing agent such as Fernox or Sentinel. You add this stuff and run
the system hot for the recommended period - few hours to a few days.
This is not satisfactory for badly sludged systems though and worth
using after b) above.

Thanks for that useful info Andy.

Before I try this, a quick question.

Can I just add the flushing agent to the system as it is now or should
I drain, fill and then add the flushing agent?

Thanks
Bob

Definitely flush and drain before adding flushing agent - i.e. get as
much stuff out of the system as you can.

But before doing this, do check the radiators for cold spots and also
when you drain, let the sediment settle and see if there is a lot of
solid material. If there is, then you really need to do a) or b)




Surely the radiators are a minor part of the problem - small pipes with dips
or low spots will cause big problems.

--


Regards

John

"Andy Hall" wrote in message


Definitely flush and drain before adding flushing agent - i.e. get as
much stuff out of the system as you can.

But before doing this, do check the radiators for cold spots and also
when you drain, let the sediment settle and see if there is a lot of
solid material. If there is, then you really need to do a) or b)




Surely the radiators are a minor part of the problem - small pipes with dips
or low spots will cause big problems.

It really depends on the pipe sizes and how mobile the sludge material
is. Remember that it is the corrosion of the steel in the radiators
which is most of the crud, plus assorted copper swarf left by lazy
installers. This is responsible for the classical cold spot at the
bottom centre when there is bad silting.

With small pipes like 8mm, there is a greater risk of blockage if much
collects. On the other hand, the velocity of water through them is
likely to be higher than with 15mm.

In my detailed write up of doing the radiator removal procedure, I
suggested that while the radiator is removed, each valve is opened in
turn and water flushed through it. If the system is sealed, then
water can be introduced via the filling loop to do this, and even a
loft tank open vented system will have a reasonable flow. If this is
done, debris in the pipes is flushed out of the system completely,
rather than being carried round the rest of the system.

It's also good practice to have a strainer fitted to the return side
of the boiler to prevent debris from being carried into the heat
exchanger. Having one of these is probably two orders of magnitude
less expensive than replacing a heat exchanger.







--

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl