to power flush or not to power flush

[transam]

Power flushing is a nice little earner & in many case's is not necssary ??

I have installed boilers on systems that you would not power flush in a month of Sunday's succesfully !! still waiting for the boilers to malfunction !

On some system's really old type iron rads ect install the boiler on a plate exchanger problem solved .

To the O.P sounds like your system would be easy to power flush than have it done ! But you will never get all the sludge out fit boiler protection ! Note most (all ?) boiler manu's will attempt to weasle there way out of any warranty claims ! muck in the system is a good excuse & is likely to become the boiler manu's standard excuse in particular with these 5 year plus warranty's that have yet to kick in enmasse , they may not be worth the paper they are written on . doing a power flush tomorrow

 

[KingofPowerflushing]

Its not an option of to power flush or not. There is no option, it has to be clean! How its cleaned is up to the installer.

How it is cleaned is up tot the B.S. not the installer - although he/she does have a choice of methods.

The can go the chemical clean route (i.e. add chemical, run system for a week or two BEFORE the new boiler goes in, drain, REPEAT and drain again.)

Or powerflush. Of the two, personally, I think powerflushing is MUCH more likely to get rid of the larger bits of rust that often don't get shifted when relying on gravity to drain the water and contents out.

That's not to say you'll get everything out with any method though. Belt-and-braces approach is to put either a magnetic filter or a strainer (filter) in the return pipework to the boiler.

One word of warning - if you have microbore, be VERY careful about powerflushing or adding chemicals of any kind and leaving them in. I have seen pipes (8mm particularly) get blocked up if you don't take steps to avoid that before starting the clean.

At the end of the day you will no doubt get what you pay for.

Hope that helps

Ian Pritchard

P.S. If I were you, I'd replace the rest of the rads anyway if they are more than twenty years old, then put a powerflush machine on just to see that the water is like. How long it takes depends upon what's found. So that part could be done on an hourly rate. Negotiate with your chosen plumber but let him know about that before he sits down to quote.

 

[smokey5877]

Thanks everyone.

I was thinking that if I isolate all but the one rad to keep, do a normal draindown and flush should tell me what trouble I have in the pipes. Seems a lot to pay £400+ for a PF when i'd only have some pipework and one rad to flush.

Maybe i'm wrong, but i'm replacing a 10 year old boiler at a cost of over £3k here so saving £400 notes would be handy.

However I don't want to have the same problems as before.

 

[simond]

We don't charge anywhere near £400 when the Powerflush is part of the boiler installation.

You are only talking that sort of money for a one-off (which I don't offer).

I strongly believe system cleansing is an important area not to skimp on, and I do it for my own piece of mind as well as the customer's. I've lost plenty of quotes and my hard earned time sticking to my quality approach.

But at the end of the day it's your boiler not mine, so you must use the benefit of your experience.

 

[MIGEM]

A powerflush does not have to add hours of additional time, or much of an extra cost to the price of a boiler swap.
It can be done at the same time, by first cutting the flow & return from under the boiler, attaching the unit by slipping on two speedfit elbows to the cut ends, and set up the flush as normal.

Then, once the unit is running, the system can be flushed at the same time as taking the old boiler off the wall, fitting the new jig, adapting the pipe work, fitting the flue, fitting your condense waste, then the last thing would be to connect the flow & return.

You can even have the apprentice, if you have one, knocking your radiators, during the flush, or stretch your own legs and do it as you go.
It may not always be possible, (space, access, etc) but most times, I have found that it is.

 

[MIGEM]

We don't charge anywhere near £400 when the Powerflush is part of the boiler installation.

I strongly believe system cleansing is an important area not to skimp on, and I do it for my own piece of mind as well as the customer's. I've lost plenty of quotes and my hard earned time sticking to my quality approach.

Hear Hear!

 

[danhiltonplumbingservices]

it its thick sludge a powerflush wont get it out it will only remove about 70 % of it also if it is a old system it can cause valves and joints to leak from the pressures used i would stick a cleaner in the system see how cleans it comes out after that then think what to do next but i wouldnt put the rads on till after the flush because the sludge or iron oxide as its true name is loves new metal as it is easy to stick to so it would all stick to the new rads and the problem would still be there . rant over

 

[PowerFlushAssociation]

Power flushing will only remove loose or newly loosened up (with chemicals) sludge. Hardened sludge that is stuck on the internal surfaces of the system will just stay there and hopefully never move. The flow rates used while power flushing, is much higher than the system pump; if a power flush machine did not get it loose, with chemicals it will not come off for a very long time.