2 year old radiator sprung a leak - Screwfix (& how much inhibitor required?)

[muggles]

Stelrad are my preferred manufacturer, but no manufacturer is going to honour a warranty with system water looking like that I'm afraid. Looks like you have system issues you need to get sorted

 

[FiremanT]

In truth, radiators don't start leaking entirely due to manufacturing faults. I have had them leak straight away, but that is different. There just may be crevices in a rad allowing debris to trap and go onto cause corrosion, but in a clean system even a cheapo rad should not corrode.

It will be interesting to hear Kudos's verdict. As per Mug's, I think you need some system attention

 

[Dan Robinson]

No chance in hell that water will pass. I doubt they'll even take it out of the bottle.

Whether or it they send you another rad is another matter.

 

[Hot&Cold]

ask your neighbour for a sample

you might as well forget about a warranty claim and buy some system flushing/cleaning products some inhibitor and then some new radiators.

Sorry its the truth.

 

[FiremanT]

Bought 3 rads from Screwfix December 2015. Last night we noticed one of them had developed a paint bubble within the previous 24 hours and when pressed it leaked water.


Kitchen: 600mm-x-700mm (D.P / D.C)

Obviously D.P / D.C just a short way of writing double panel double convector S.P / S.C = single panel single convector.

Thanks.

As a matter of interest, why did you buy new rads in the first place?

Oh. And thanks for taking the time to explain your code. We are all generally a bit slow on the uptake

 

[Mr. Clueless]

As a matter of interest, why did you buy new rads in the first place?

Oh. And thanks for taking the time to explain your code. We are all generally a bit slow on the uptake

LMAO. I like to cover all bases is all i can say. It saves time in the long run

Why did i buy new rads? Because for 1) all the rads in the house were weird sizes. Imperial i suppose. Whatever they were they certainly weren't the metric ones you can buy. The floor was getting renewed as well as the joists (bad damp trouble) so thought may as well get something that will be easy to replace in future if needs be, since the piping needed to be cut & moved. If i ever had an issue with the imperial rad once carpet etc was down then it'd just be easier with metric and 2) the living room is around 7mtrs long by 3.5 mtrs wide so a fair size. All that was in there was a single panel single convector rad for each. The room felt bloody cold.

As per Mug's, I think you need some system attention

Sorry its the truth.

No problem, if it's what it is then it's what it is.

Obviously you guys only have a photo to go off, you're not out looking at the system or the water etc in person but based on what you've got - what would you say is the course of action needed to be taken here? Or can you not tell just based on the photos?


I have a guy coming out to look at the hot-cold-hot-cold issue of the boiler on Friday. This guy advertises as doing powerflushing. Something on those lines? TBH i'm purely guessing as i don't really know what powerflushing entails, just the name sounds like a decent clean


It wasn't all that long ago (last year or year before) that i flushed the system. Ok i didn't use any cleaner in it. I filled it up, drained it & repeated until it ran clean. Then i got it to temp, drained it & repeated until it ran clean. Then put the inhibitor in & filled it again.
I didn't use any chemical cleaner for the same way i don't use any engine cleaner on the car or a magnetic sump plug for example - because i read there's a chance of dislodging chunks of crud which could cause bigger problems.

 

[Mr. Clueless]

Just a thought - could this manky water be linked to the hot-cold-hot-cold problem we're having with the boiler which people seem to think is *tries to remember name* heat exchanger? Or is it likely to be unrelated?

 

[lemon_1]

Just a thought - could this manky water be linked to the hot-cold-hot-cold problem we're having with the boiler which people seem to think is *tries to remember name* heat exchanger? Or is it likely to be unrelated?

Yes of course the gunk in your system is the most likely cause of all your problems. But gunk usually causes parts to fail as well.. so you likely have a multitude of problems. Next time make sure you install inhibitor in the system and a magnetic filter

 

[Mr. Clueless]

Yes of course the gunk in your system is the most likely cause of all your problems. But gunk usually causes parts to fail as well.. so you likely have a multitude of problems. Next time make sure you install inhibitor in the system and a magnetic filter

Would this heat exchanger not be such a part? Or are you talking about other specific parts?

I've a plumber who advertises as doing powerflushing coming out at the end of the week so hopefully we can start to get it sorted. I googled that i should expect around £400 +/- for the powerflushing alone

As said, when i ended up putting a leak on the system we had a plumber out who sorted the leak, drained the system but never put inhibitor in. I knew no different at the time as it was all new to me. We ran it probably for the best part of a year like that (that was before the new rads were put in). While it may or may not have been the cause i guess it wont have helped.

 

[Mr. Clueless]

I had the plumber guy out and he said the same as you - powerflush and magnetic filter. All in all £480 i think the quote is. That's for the powerflushing and the magnetic filter.

It will be interesting to hear Kudos's verdict.

Well no surprises for anyone i think...



Now short of the obvious (corrosion in the system) what do those results say?

Seem to want Fernox inhibitor in the system. I put sentinel in. Surely it's all the same stuff? Inhibitor is inhibitor?

But anyway the guy is due to come back out in a couple weeks to powerflush and magnetic filter install.

 

[flameport]

Seem to want Fernox inhibitor in the system.

It appears those tests were done by Fernox, so no surprise that they recommend Fernox products.

They don't reveal much either - other than there is a certain amount of corrosion, which was fairly obvious just by looking at it.

Inhibitor is inhibitor?

Different manufacturers use various different chemicals in them. Whether that has any impact on how effective they are is unknown.

 

[John D v2.0]

Nice that they did the tests for you! The level of detail is good but the real information needed is how much air is dissolved, which would be lost by the time it got there. Even adding inhibitor, if there's air getting in somewhere, it's not good.

 

[FiremanT]

Nice to get a thread where the OP is responsive, and doesn't rant or throw hos toys out of the pram when receiving "negative" comments.

The £480 is in the right area (we haven't seen the job). ASSUMING it is done properly. When I di a lot of PFing, I use to try to get the customer to see ll the crap coming out at a a particular stage. It helped to give them confidence that I wasn't fabricating work,that I was doing it properly, and that they were getting something for their hard earned.

TBH it never occurred to me that I should send the finished system water for analysis,as evidence of a properly completed job. Does anyone do this, and what do you pay?

 

[Mr. Clueless]

Well since the rad isn't going to be replaced for free i went out & got a new one today.
It's easy to pan Kudox but really the water was crappy and the other Kudox rads are (so far) doing ok. So i can't have complaints really. A big influence was the brackets are already on the wall. The walls have been tanked & when drilling in to them we're supposed to fill them with this certain Sovereign silicone (which we don't have & i'd hate to think of the price for a few holes).

Anyway as part of the deal they threw in a free valve.

The one currently in place is the one i'm pointing to, the freebie being the other.

Is it all much of a muchness and there's really no difference in quality? Would you have one over the other and if so then why?

If there's really bugger all difference then i'll just stick to what's currently in place and look at selling the other one. Even £5 for it is still profit.