Flushing - how effective ?

[verdigris]

I have inherited a system that i think has been flushed twice before. It was not thought necessary to flush again when a new condensing boiler was fitted. It is a microbore system with 9 radiators no problems since fitting new boiler. Decorating bathroom meant removing rad. it was full of contaminated liquid. I am told the system needs flushing again. At £400 a go, I have to ask are they any good ? Is there a better solution?

 

[oilman]

.......It was not thought necessary to flush again when a new condensing boiler was fitted..........

So the boiler was fitted at a cost of well over £1000 no doubt. Which tight fisted git thought it was ok not to flush it? I hope he gave a guarantee of at least as long as the manufacturer for the heat exchanger.

Now a question, ........which is cheaper, new boiler or a system flush?

 

[ChrisR]

"flush" can mean anything between a fill and empty, and a full day with acidic chemicals and solution testing kit.
So it depends...
ypymatyc

 

[verdigris]

He may have thought he was saving us some money. With hindsight it was a wrong move. The question now is, are the flushes effective? They say they are and give a three year guarantee.
Does the powerflush remove all the debris?
I understand it will take all day to flush out the system.

 

[ChrisR]

A full powerflush, done properly is best. Still depends on the chemicals and how bad the system is/was. You don't generally use the most aggressive chems on old systems.
100% clear? - would have to doubt it.

 

[namsag]

You say you have micro-bore if you have twin entry rad valves(both pipes into same valve. Then a power flush will be ineffective. Rads will need to be taken off and hosed through.And to be honest on most systems this will get more sh#te out than any power flush

 

[verdigris]

No not twin entry.
Your thoughts on removing and flushing sounds sense. Don't know if they would go for that.
For £440 I would expect it to be fully cleaned out.
I have a septic tank and do wonder what the chemicals will do to that.
We have rain water soakaways so could use those I suppose

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Add Sentinel X400 for a week, switch off heating, open all rad valves fully, remove pump, cap off feed and vent with push fits caps, then useing two hose pipes connect to pump connections, one connected to the mains and one to the drain, shut all off rads but one, carefully turn on mains and leave to run until clear, turn on next rad and then turn off rad you have just flushed, do this till all rads flushed, reverse connections and do the same again, rejoin cold feed with push fit coupling, uncap vent, only X400 going into eco system and heating thoroughly flushed leaving clean water, add X100 inhibitor and job done, should take a morning, two 22mmx 15mm conex reducers, two hose pipes, two jubilee clips, one pushfit coupling, two pushfit caps(re-useable), nowhere near £400.00 and no nasty chemicals bugggering up the environment which the ODPM "loves" so much and were all busting our bollokks to save..

 

[feebeebos]

£400 is a bit excessive for a Power Flush, the chemicals only come to around £40 so the rest is good earnings for a days work. I charge £275 which I think is reasonable and I've been trained, so shop around.

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

We want the least amount of chemicals going into the environment as we end up drinking and bathing in the damn stuff at some point, no wonder the cancer wards are full of patients, yes Mr Punter your heating is nicelly flushed so you will be warm during your chemo, hopefully you will live long enough to
enjoy your sqeaky clean heating system.