How much inhibitor should I use plus what's a deaerator?

[biriyaniboy]

Hello all,

How much inhibitor would be needed for a house with 23 radiators. 4 of them are small (1200 ish btu), 1's a towel rail which I think would be 2000btu, there's another 2000-ish btu one, a plinth heater and the rest of the radiators are doubles with 2 column ones as well. It says on the pack (sentinel x100) to use 2ltrs for larger than 10 radiators so should that be enough for what I've described?

Another thing, while buying a filter (opted for a fernox tf1 rather than a magnaclean) I noticed deaeratoring devices. Should I get one for my CH, or is it not needed? I have a system boiler with an unvented tank. While it's drained down I might as well add bits if they're beneficial.

Thanks for any advice

 

[D_Hailsham]

There's no harm in over-dosing so I would put in 3 cans of X100. If you live in a hard water area, you should also put in the same quantity of X200.

 

[mickyg]

If you want to go the full hog, a spirotech de-airator can be fitted on the flow from the boiler to keep air in the system to an absolute minimum.

 

[biriyaniboy]

Thank you for replying. Never seen X200 before, might get a bottle (or should that be two?) though my boiler's not noisy my last one was really bad. I am in a hard water area - 17.1 d clarke.

Would a de-aerator work in a closed system? I do have knocking pipes so would it stop that?

 

[mickyg]

Would a de-aerator work in a closed system? I do have knocking pipes so would it stop that?

yes it will always be benficial in any system(although how much is arguable!), but I wont cure your knocking pipes , thats either pipes that are too close together or in contact with wood.

 

[doitall]

If the system is good you shouldn't need anything.

Devices like de-aerators that continually take air from the system that then need constant topping up, is the quickest road to sludge, corrosion and pin holed rads.

Sentinel inhibitor is fine and all you should need.

knocking pipes is domestic and a different story, probably pipes not clipped etc.

 

[biriyaniboy]

Ok, I've decided to forgo the deaerator as it won't de-knock my pipes and it's not a must have like the filter is.

I was wondering, my gas safe man is going to flush and drain the system with something other than sentinel - will it still be ok to use sentinel after this? The flushing stuff won't mix with the inhibitor will it?

 

[doitall]

The flushing stuff should be flushed out.

Sentinel will be fine.

 

[Whitespirit66]

Some brands of inhibitor say to use 1 litre of inhibitor for every X litres of system capacity. Who measures this, I don't know.

I usually allow a litre per ten average sized rads on an average domestic system, with average pipe runs. As said, too much better than too little. Also, like the antifreeze in your car, it's best to replace inhibitor every few years. On average.

 

[biriyaniboy]

Sorry for being a thicko, but I have to ask; is the X200 preventative of limescale, as I've been reading the product literature and it seems to be a solution for systems that already have limescale built up. I think mine's fairly clean as it's only 10months old.

Would I still be advised to use it, and would it be 2 litres? Seems like an awful lot of liquid.

 

[Whitespirit66]

X200 is a boiler descaler/noise reducer. It's used to rectify a problem usually.

You only need the inhibitor X100.