Albion Mainsflow faulty heat exchanger

[mickyg]

I have seen hundreds sludged up

Yeah , probably installed by bathroom changers and maintained by dim wit rgi's who can't be bothered to powerflush or inhibit the system.

Well your not far wrong, and don't get me wrong I'm not against Thermal Stores. They have their place, but 3 bed semis is not it. Large domestic and small commercial they can have their uses and certainly in multifuel situations.
Gledhill however have made mostly sh1te. The early ones seemed to encourage corrosion and the later ones are full of rubbish electronics.
The stainless types are better as is the use of a heating coil but they have no advantage in small domestic properties over a combi imo.

 

[mickyg]

oh yeah, and the other problem is you can't flush em out properly, so once they're full of sh1te its game over. At least a conventional system can be brought back to life.

 

[Muzz]

is the sludging you are refering to the same as you might find in the bottom of a radiator and because the water in the store is circulated through the whole system?

therefore, if you had an indirectly heated thermal store where the heating loop was sealed from the store, sludging wouldn't occur?

 

[mickyg]

is the sludging you are refering to the same as you might find in the bottom of a radiator and because the water in the store is circulated through the whole system?

therefore, if you had an indirectly heated thermal store where the heating loop was sealed from the store, sludging wouldn't occur?

yeh your right, the heating loop design is much better. Although the other issue is the volume of water that doesn't move very quick, and the amount of inhibitor required to stop it rotting. Again the stainless helps stop this, so a stainless with a loop is arguably the way to go. Also its best to have a simple control system, not the carp gledhill use, trying to be clever.

 

[Rich04]

Newbie here, sorry to dig up an old-ish thread, but i have the same problem as the OP, just a bit of background first

albion Mainsflow MFI 20/120 tank heated by Glowworm energysaver 30 boiler, mains water is 15mm metered pipe

i have been living in this house for just over 10 years, house is 12 years old,4 replacement tanks fitted for the same fault, tank coil split on the cold water feed, back filling through the cylinder into the header tank in the loft, and then onto my path outside

the first 2 tanks were replaced under warranty, the 3rd i paid someone to replace, the 4th my father and myself fitted to save labour costs, the last tank was fitted in August 2007, so in theory still in manufacturers warranty, but because we fitted it ourselves, i believe there is no warranty, so theres the problem,

when we bought the tank last time, it came as a complete unit, 3 litre pressure vessel, mixer tap, pipework etc, al this was fitted etc except for some of the pipework as it was easier to use the original pipes as they were 15mm to 22mm for the tank inlets, 3 bar pressure set in pressure vessel etc, all has worked ok until the start of this year when it started leaking again, i currently turn the mains water off now due to the amount i'm losing outside

when this tank was bought it cost about £250 off EBAY, now i see i can't get one for less than £1000 just why has there been such a price increase ?

well my question is really, what is my best option, rip the lot out, new combi boiler ? the only problem there is i live in a hard water area and i foresee a limescaled up boiler every couple of years

do i break the bank and fork out a grand on a new tank which will last another 2.5 years ?

or is there a 3rd option, does anybody make a tank wich will fit my system for reasonable money ? I see Albion make stainless steel tanks, but do they make one to fit my system ?

or is there anything else i can do ?

P.S. the only thing i am a bit suspect about is the pressure reducton valve on the mains inlet pipe, i'm not sure it is actually reducing the pressure to 3bar, but then i suppose 3 bar is 40psi, so quite high

TIA Rich

 

[combispecialist]

Uve got 2 options,rip it out and put a descent unvented cylinder in,or just fit a combi,thats wot I would do

 

[combispecialist]

P.s I live in 1 of the hardest water areas in the country and scale doesnt effect combis like people make out,its
Always sludge from ch thats blocks then.just fit a suitable scale protector that will HELP but not completely stop scale...HS38's are good and easy to install with no servicing req'd

 

[simond]

£250 was very cheap for one of these even 4 yrs ago, I suspect it was half inched by the ebay seller.

We have fitted a few of these Albion Mainsflow units and have not had any problems, so I wonder if you are getting some high overnight peak pressures affecting the coil.

If you do go down the heatstore route again it might be worth considering fitting a pressure reducing valve to the cold water incomer.

Other manufacturers of heatstores include DPS and Gledhill Building Products (eg: Torrent).

 

[Rich04]

£250 was very cheap for one of these even 4 yrs ago, I suspect it was half inched by the ebay seller.

We have fitted a few of these Albion Mainsflow units and have not had any problems, so I wonder if you are getting some high overnight peak pressures affecting the coil.

If you do go down the heatstore route again it might be worth considering fitting a pressure reducing valve to the cold water incomer.

Other manufacturers of heatstores include DPS and Gledhill Building Products (eg: Torrent).

when you say fit a pressure reducing valve, is this in addition to the one fitted just after my main stopcock under the sink, which is set to 3 bar

i think the Ebay seller got them off a company that had gone bust, they were full kits with all the pipework and pressure vessel included