Powerflush before new boiler?

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Hi guys,

I have an old potterton boiler that i will be replaced in the next few months before the winter.

The boiler came with the house that was built in 1993 so is around 21 years old. I have had a quote to replace the boiler but was told a powerflush wouldnt be needed, and that a magnaclean and inhibitor would suffice. All i know is that my pipes are microbore and apparently are quite thin, and that there was a brand new radiator added in to my conservatory in around 2006, so i dont know if that means the system would have had to be drained and subsequently would have had a bit of a clean out because of that draining and refilling ( if that was indeed done ) ?

I plan to have a new intergas boiler installed but dont want it to be damaged by sludge etc. Im not sure there is a way to tell if i need a powerflush, does it go by age, or the type of system you have etc?

I am happy to pay some to powerflush if required and thats fine, but of course if it is only needed on 30+ years old systems then i am happy to leave it.Can you advise? Thanks
 
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Im not sure how you tell if it needs doing though or how someone can say with any confidence that it does or does not need doing.

I bled one of the radiators downstairs recently and the water ran clear for the couple of seconds it came out, no idea if this is any indication of how good / bad the system is.

I dont get cold spots on the bottoms of the radiators, but the heating system takes a good 10 mins or so to get warm. Any ideas on this? cheers
 
Its decided on the colour of the water in your system.

If all your rads heat properly and the water is clean then it does not need power flushing.

To comply with makers requirements it does need a cleanser like X800 added to the heating system and circulated hot for 5-10 hours.

The Intergas boiler design is not very susceptible to dirt.

Tony Glazier
 
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Personally I would recommend a power flush. I have quite a good power flushing kit and take me time to do it properly. You would be amazed with the amount of magnetite, etc that can be removed from open vented systems of a similar age to yours. Especially with microbore as you want the flow to be as unrestricted as possible.

A customer came back to me a year after I did a power flush, and that was all we did. He kept his boiler and everything else as it was and he said he saved £500 on his annual gas bill.

That meant he made money on the cost of the powerflush.
 
Clear water coming out of the bleed for a few seconds doesn't tell you if the system is clean or not. A full drain down will give you some idea along with taking a few radiators off.

I like to put my flushing machine on and see what I get out of the system, if it is clean I stop, I try a few radiators with my vibraclean and see how things go. If the system is clean then I don't continue and in turn I don't charge the customer for a full power flush. That does require a degree of honesty on the part of the installer.

Age isn't the be all and end all, I have seen very old systems that are clean as a whistle and I have seen systems a few years old in a complete mess.
 
I also stop if it's clean cos I hate doing it. It's so boring. I also wouldn't charge cos if you have your own business honesty is key to building up your reputation. And you're right in that you cannot tell by letting water out of the top of the radiator. It's the stuff that comes out last when you drain down that is usually a good indication as well as cold spots on the radiators.
If I'm doing it as part of a new boiler installation I charge a lot less for it than if I was doing a power flush alone so I tend to power flush every time I replace a boiler.
 
, download the installation instructions and you will probably find they insist on it for warranty.
 
Generally speaking, microbore is incompatible with Powerflushing.

Some powerflush manufacturers say you can do it, some say it is pointless. The powerflush works by thrusting a large volume of water (much larger than a conventional heating circulation pump) through the pipework into a single radiator at a time.

This large volume of water causes turbulence inside the radiator matrix which when combined with heat and a cleansing chemical (plus some vibration if you use a vibraclean) loosens up the magnetite and sends it down the pipe whereupon it enters the powerflush machine.

If the powerflush machine is big enough (and many budget ones are laughably small), the idea is that the dirty water hits a large mass of water inside the machine whereupon the velocity drops massively and anything that is heavier than water separates and sinks to the bottom of the machine.

Some installers such as ourselves incorporate a commercial Magnacleanse in series with the Powerflush machine to magnetically remove the magnetite rather than hoping it separates within the powerflush machine buffer tank on its way back to the radiator.

So why am I telling you this?

Microbore pipe is long and thin, it's small bore drastically reduces the dynamics of the water flow out of the Powerflush machine - and remember, we are talking about both on the way out, and on the way back in microbore. You could easily have 12-15 metres of the stuff in circuit.

So the 'large volume of water causing turbulence' scenario is going to be massively diminished in a microbore radiator circuit - which is just as well, because any large flakes of rust dislodged in the radiator are going to have to travel all the way back down the microbore to get into the Powerflush machine. And there's a very good chance of a blockage.

We religiously Powerflush and Magnacleanse everything - apart from Microbore and One Pipe Systems, where we just Magnacleanse them.

If you think you have a major dirt problem on microbore connected rads, best bet is to do it the old fashioned way; take them off and hose them out outdoors.

A Worcester System Filter or a SpiroTECH MB3 filter would be a wise investment to catch stray debris thereafter. Both catch ferrous and non ferrous materials.
 
AndyPandy, have you paid to advertise your company here?
 
Amazing some of the sh#te people spout about a system must have a powerflush .

Age doesnt really come in to it a 30 year old correctly installed and inhibited system will not need one but a badly installed 2 year old system could be choca,

As for needing one for warranty , complete and utter bo ll ox
 
Amazing some of the sh#te people spout about a system must have a powerflush .

Age doesnt really come in to it a 30 year old correctly installed and inhibited system will not need one but a badly installed 2 year old system could be choca,

As for needing one for warranty , complete and utter bo ll ox

100% agree mate. Smoke & mirrors, oh & lashings of Salesmanship!!

While we have two power flush machines & do use them on boiler swops, the very vast majority of systems don't need a complete power flush. Simple job of checking the system water PH & ppm, will tell you what the system is like.
A lot of times a power flush will blow a radiator, then it does need a flush.... :LOL:
 

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