Blocked 10mm ch pipes

Hi all,
12 rad system, 10mm pipe/ manifolds.
4 rads cold, 4 lukewarm, 4 not too bad.
The problem lies in the pipes (rads been off & flushed) so needs some heavy duty cleaning, however I've been told that if pipes are blocked not even FX2 acid will shift it as it can only work at the end of the blockage, which could extend for meters. In the past I,ve seen stretches of blocked 10mm plastic I couldnt even get my mini rods through.

I have never used acid before, and dont like the idea of it being trapped in circuits if I cant get it moving, so would appreciate any advice on if it will work or not, from anyone who has dealt with the same problem.

I am trying to avoid re-piping, as the floors are glued 8x2 t&g chipboard, ( No idea where manifolds are) with all circuits running at 1st floor level & drops behind plaster. - Nightmare

I know i will have to isolate boiler (ali hex) .

Hope someone has the knowledge,

Cheers Ian.

Unfortunately even fx2 or ds40 will not unblock a completely blocked pipe as it needs to circulate to work.

Are you sure the pipes are completely blocked? Have you tried turning off all rads except the problem 4 rads, 1 at a time? Even if you have a very small amount of circulation then fx2 should clear it.

If the pipes are fully blocked then you could try putting mains pressure through the pipes, but this rarely works on fully blocked pipes.

Apart from that your only options are to try and poke some thick metal wire down the pipes as far as you can. If all else fails, i'm afraid you will have to re-pipe the blocked pipework.

Not sure I want to admit this
I have cleared small bore blockages in 3 different bungalows
With curtain wire
Whether it was solid or not I couldn't say
Started off with the 8 foot lengths at wilkos for a knicker
Soon realisled they couldn't reach far enough and went to the local curtain shop and got a 6 metre length off the roll
Which did the trick, after removing the valve and poking it up the pipe
Being combis there was only a limited amount of water to collect in the builders sack

Ian, have you done the bucket test to identify exactly which pipe is blocked?

I would carefully identify the blocked pipe and apply 2-3 bar of air pressure and see if any air flows.

If it did or even if not then I would apply about 8% of HCl and pressurise that slightly to encourage the acid to flow. When/if some flow did occur then I would switch to citric acid to complete the cleaning of that pipe.

When/if I managed to get a flow through all of the pipes then I would run the system with citric acid to try to remove all of the dirt from the pipes.

Probably circulating through each of the rads in turn.

Tony

Thanks for the info guys,
I have identified the blocked legs on the stone cold rads, so I think I will firstly try manually snaking those, then a week or two in Hyperflush to see what flow I can get. I have a pump that can do 200litre/min, but it needs that initial hole to get through to start mobilising the crud.
I will decide which way to go from there, and use the acid if needed. Like I said I dont like the Idea of acid remaining in totally blocked pipes possibly finding its way eventually to the ali hex.
Cheers I will post in a week or two with results.

I doubt that you will get 200 li/min through much 10 mm pipe!

28 mm perhaps!

The reality is that a pump will give a pressure ( or head ) and the flow rate achieved depends on the resistance involved.

Tony