Personally I would expect a powerflush to get rid of all chips - how long did it take?
Plumbers have told me it’s a boring job….maybe some rush it as it should take at least half a day
Powerflush question
- Thread starter Mike13
- Start date
Personally I would expect a powerflush to get rid of all chips - how long did it take?
Plumbers have told me it’s a boring job….maybe some rush it as it should take at least half a day
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The Op seemed to suggest it did, but it depends I suppose how bad it was to begin with. If it's ketteling, it suggests it is more obstructed now, than before.
yes, I had dropped the pressure first, then took the top fitting off one side of the towel rail, as that is highest point of the system.
I also found I only had 1/2 of one circlip present, the other was missing and fell out while I was trying to repair.
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It is now sort of had one bleed down, lots of silt in the container, I used a large casserole dish below drain at lowest point, gently dribbling around the edge means I have caught all the heavy silt now, pic tomorrow. It kettled just now, it is at about 2.3 bar, so boiling point at ~130C, and the temp reported on the front was about 62 (demand is 51) and the temp briefly bounced up to 81C! eek. Definitely not running well, the silt and crud may have baked hard in the narrow slots of the HEX??.
I'm afraid to say that it looks like the job wasn't done properly if the pic in post #8 (#12) is anything to go by. Even after numerous attempts and to leave the system the way it is is just plain unprofessional.
A cleaner should have been introduced into the system a good few days before the system was even drained and allowed to run under normal conditions to do it's job, using an aggressive cleaner is all fair and well if a system is seriously sludged up to at least get things moving but I find it never does as good an all round clean and as suggested a strong cleaner needs tested for and neutralised afterwards.
A proper powerflush, especially on that size of system should take at least a day if not more and each radiator should be agitated to loosen stubborn debris. If the system is bad (black) and a lot of debris is being found then each rad should be powerflushed separately, especially on such an elongated system like that
I must admit though your system is quite convoluted and 2 of the legs must struggle sometimes, if they all fed from 15mm pipe, without some seriously clever balancing.
Was the boiler flushed properly too, not sure from the posts.
A cleaner should have been introduced into the system a good few days before the system was even drained and allowed to run under normal conditions to do it's job, using an aggressive cleaner is all fair and well if a system is seriously sludged up to at least get things moving but I find it never does as good an all round clean and as suggested a strong cleaner needs tested for and neutralised afterwards.
A proper powerflush, especially on that size of system should take at least a day if not more and each radiator should be agitated to loosen stubborn debris. If the system is bad (black) and a lot of debris is being found then each rad should be powerflushed separately, especially on such an elongated system like that
I must admit though your system is quite convoluted and 2 of the legs must struggle sometimes, if they all fed from 15mm pipe, without some seriously clever balancing.
Was the boiler flushed properly too, not sure from the posts.
Thanks, I will chat with him tomorrow morning about it. I think there should have been time to run the cleaner through as all the plumbers I asked had a waiting list, and it was several days before he came to do it.
Yes, it has been a nightmare to balance them, the closest ones are almost shut off to stop them hogging all the flow. I should put a little bit of 1/16" dia 20thou bore stainless in between to give the others a chance!
Yes, it has been a nightmare to balance them, the closest ones are almost shut off to stop them hogging all the flow. I should put a little bit of 1/16" dia 20thou bore stainless in between to give the others a chance!
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What did you find when you cleaned out the filter?
All over the place, It is spending a lot of time on s.07
Nope, won't help I'm afraid. The trouble is down to whoever used 15mm to extend the system over that amount of distance with that number and size of rads hanging off of it, that was never going to end well. The only way really to sort that out TBH would be to replace the 15mm with a 22mm backbone.
How bad was the system to start with, sounds like it might have been oily black?
If the system was really bad then it could take a few sessions to get it all sorted out and using an aggressive cleaner wasn't the way to go IMO. One of the problems to do a proper clean on that system is the extended nature of it, therefore the machine would have had to be moved to different positions, either that or run at each rad independently if it was really bad. Cant see that being powerflushed properly if the machine was sitting outside and only connected at the boiler
Kettling will be down to overheating so either the HEX is airlocked or circulation through the HEX is poor,
Well there is a 22mm backbone, about 19 metres of it, then there are 4 branches off near the end of that, I put it in writing on the diagram on the previous page.
Is the water circulating forcefully through all the pipes? When oxide particles reach the filter it should trap them. Eventually there will be less and less to trap.
I am in a situation where the Hex seems damaged, using a portable butane heater on cold days to top up the warm in the house.
It is spending time on F.24 and S.07 so unable to get smooth continuous flow.
When I tried to drain down through the external fitting it took a stupidly long time to not fully drain down, from memory quite a few years ago a full empty of the pipework took about 20% of the time it took me to not even be able to open the downstairs bleed valves, as the water was above that level.
I think it needs a rethink on how the powerflush is done, then run some cleaner before commenting on the state of the hex? either way it needs to be clean before the hex is changed or checked.
some of the particles are almost a cm long, they are going to struggle to climb 2.5 metres of 22mm pipe!
The bowl is about 33x20 cm for scale, and the flow was very slow at the end, but still could not open ground floor bleeds without spilling water. I think I also saw a bit of the brass disc that should have held the diverter rubber in place!
It is spending time on F.24 and S.07 so unable to get smooth continuous flow.
When I tried to drain down through the external fitting it took a stupidly long time to not fully drain down, from memory quite a few years ago a full empty of the pipework took about 20% of the time it took me to not even be able to open the downstairs bleed valves, as the water was above that level.
I think it needs a rethink on how the powerflush is done, then run some cleaner before commenting on the state of the hex? either way it needs to be clean before the hex is changed or checked.
some of the particles are almost a cm long, they are going to struggle to climb 2.5 metres of 22mm pipe!
The bowl is about 33x20 cm for scale, and the flow was very slow at the end, but still could not open ground floor bleeds without spilling water. I think I also saw a bit of the brass disc that should have held the diverter rubber in place!
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