magnaclean filter/scale reducer? Necessary?

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We're having a vaillant boiler installed to replace our old boiler, this house is planning to be owned by us for a very long time. The installer has offered a magnaclean filter to fight sludge in the central heating and also a scale reducer fitted also for an extra £200 if we want it, my question is, will this £200 be worth it in the long-run? I haven't asked the central heating engineer because I felt this was a bias opinion, and I want a non-bias one....So any good? worth it?
 
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I would recommend it. It collects all the sludge in your system and every time I service a boiler I take out the magna clean filter, show the customer and clean it.
 
Excellent piece of kit, but I do hope your installer is going to flush your system properly before fitting the new boiler.
 
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Magnaclean is pants. They leak, snap, fall apart. Should have a picture of M Mouse on the box.

There is no substitute for dilgent Powerflush. After this you fit a Spiro magnabooster if you really want, but if the system comes up clean a dirt filter is unneccessary. And they do not remove ALL the dirt as suggested earlier. No manufacturer would make that claim.

The scale reducer is inappropriate unless your water is particularly hard, but even then the aquasensor in the ecoTEC plus keeps the water temp lower than the point at which scale separates out from water.
 
Even when the sysytem has been flushed, there will still be residul dirt in it. The Magnaclean is fantastically effective in trapping black sludge but it is true, it is made of plastic, the build quality has never been good, and they do tend to leak and drip after a while, both at the cap and at the poor-quality valves.

It may take a year or two for the leaking to become a nuisance, by which time the guarantee will have run out, but for about the same money you can buy the Spirotech device which is made of brass and much better built. I am an amateur not a pro but I have used both, and yes, it's true.

The Magnaclean was the first mass-market device that was sold in huge numbers, and for a few years it was very popular, but I'm sure the makers must be regretting their decision to maximise their profit by building it cheaply. Many installers won't touch them now because of the trouble and cost they cause by leaking.
 
The Spirovent was one of the first dirt separators, had a 30 year lead on the Adey Magnaclean.

Where the Magnaclean won was the shrewd marketing of the magnet. As a dirt separation device a magnet ignores all the non ferrous muck; whereas the gauze system in the Spiro product has always been very effective at separating solids, whatever their constituents.

I think it is worthy promoting British, but in the case of Magnaclean, the product is executed in a lousy manner and their idea of warranty is to send you another. If you complain, they offer you more free product. I don't want to fit stuff in customers houses that is going to come back.

They had the British Gas contract, and blew it away. I had to laugh, BG fitting them on every boiler install for 2 years........that is going to cost them dearly for the decade. And hack all their customers off. Because the worst thing you can do to a Magnaclean is OPEN it.
 
I've just fitted a Fernox Total Filter. Very easy to fit. Cheaper than the Magnaclean but has the centrifugal separator as well as a very strong magnet. Very easy to empty. When fitting be careful when screwing the brass nuts on to the plastic threads as they can crossthread very easily.

Definitely flush out with a pipework cleaner and use antiscaler . I have UFH so I have also used a Biocide.
 
We've had a leaking one of these too (from drain valve).

Pleased to say Fernox had replacement parts in customers hands next working day, and paid our labour to fit them.

That is customer service.
 

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