A good inhibitor:
and there's bound to be other stuff I don't know about.
But on balance it appears very unwise to leave it out.
"Not showing signs of problems" - may be. Big deal. Suppose you get a leaky rad valve and they lose enough to have to fill it a few times. It's too bloody late to stop oxides circulating. You put inhibitor in and it coats them and that goes round - and eventually makes a black slime you could have avoided.
Filters:
Help with
Non magnetic particles which could wear diverters, turbines etc, pumps especially crappy Wilos.
Those are mostly only on combis. Grunny pumps are cheaper than filters and last ages.
Remember most particles go straight through a hex and don't affect it.
Magnetic particles, ditto but some preferentialy would stick to ferrous metals in the boiler - but there aren't many now.
Filters block up quicker than hex's. If there's a long term problem it's better to flush the system harder, unless you can't.
Fairly clean sealed systems often have cleanish filters and flaked DHWHEs. Filters here seem a dubious investment.
Industrial exp shows that a lightish deposit in a wet hex had little or no effect on heat transfer. Anything soaked, conducts quite well. (Not the same as for air/gas). So it only matters when
So if you put a filter on ask yourself what it's actually going to do, and whether anyone's going to monitor it. What's the resistance of a 3/4 blocked filter?
On a brand new non-combi system it's probably not a good investment, assuming there's inhibitor in there.
- sweeps up residual flux etc
is designed to help against microcell (pinhole) corrosion
helps with effects of chemical impurities in the steel rads (eg sulphides) etc
tends to reduce noise
helps with inevitable, incremental, ingress of oxygenated air, which will happen
satisfies the manufacturer (mostly)
is extremely cheap
Is supposed to stop temporary hardness depositing on the main hex at first heat-up. Though few people put the stuff in COLD.
and there's bound to be other stuff I don't know about.
But on balance it appears very unwise to leave it out.
"Not showing signs of problems" - may be. Big deal. Suppose you get a leaky rad valve and they lose enough to have to fill it a few times. It's too bloody late to stop oxides circulating. You put inhibitor in and it coats them and that goes round - and eventually makes a black slime you could have avoided.
Filters:
Help with
Non magnetic particles which could wear diverters, turbines etc, pumps especially crappy Wilos.
Those are mostly only on combis. Grunny pumps are cheaper than filters and last ages.
Remember most particles go straight through a hex and don't affect it.
Magnetic particles, ditto but some preferentialy would stick to ferrous metals in the boiler - but there aren't many now.
Filters block up quicker than hex's. If there's a long term problem it's better to flush the system harder, unless you can't.
Fairly clean sealed systems often have cleanish filters and flaked DHWHEs. Filters here seem a dubious investment.
Industrial exp shows that a lightish deposit in a wet hex had little or no effect on heat transfer. Anything soaked, conducts quite well. (Not the same as for air/gas). So it only matters when
- there's so much crud it blocks the flow
or the heat ex area was marginal
at highest water flow rate, if it's variable.
So if you put a filter on ask yourself what it's actually going to do, and whether anyone's going to monitor it. What's the resistance of a 3/4 blocked filter?
On a brand new non-combi system it's probably not a good investment, assuming there's inhibitor in there.
