Why to use a Magnaclean ? Pictures and Video

[picbits]

I decided to give my heating system a flush. Drained it, whacked in a couple of litres of heating cleaner. refilled with fresh water and left it for a week.

Curiousity got the better of me and I took off a sample from a drain point to see how it was looking.

I was faced with a nice bottle of murky water. It wasn't as murky as I'd expected and I couldn't see any large rust particles floating around or so I thought ......

I grabbed a fridge magnet and held it to the edge of the bottle. About 10 seconds later, a large black smudge had appeared inside the bottle - good old iron filings. I then raided the kiddies Magnetix set to do a bit of experimenting.

A little "test rig" I set up



After 10 minutes, time to see what the magnets have trapped:



And the other side .....



And some video of me messing about with the "sludge"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHu5_bQa3Uc

And another one (yes I was bored)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAiunUaIiAU

Needless to say, I will be fitting a Magnaclean in the very near future.

I don't have any affiliation with Magnaclean/Adey but this has really opened my eyes to the amount of crud that accumulates in a system.

Feel free to copy off or share the pictures/video with your customers - its my own work and you have my full permission

 

[tryitandsee]

Fantastic bit of research, it's so refreshing to think there are other anoraks out there that enjoy this kind of thing. 10 out of 10

Beats all the other depressing news out there at the moment.

 

[bengasman]

The reason why the cleaner didn't do a lot is because your heating is off (can't imagine it has been on a lot in midsummer).
Cleaner does virtually nothing if it is not hot and moving around; bit like a dishwasher.

 

[picbits]

My heating has been on for at least an hour a day since the cleaner was put in. Sad in this weather but I know its more effective on a hot system.

I've had it on all day today but only in certain rooms - I've been circulating it and moving to a cooler room to work then shutting off the rads that have been used and opening other ones etc etc.

Not 100% ideal but it seems to be doing the job.

 

[bengasman]

Depending on which cleaner you use, it can take up to 4 weeks to do its job. Either repeat the job this winter, or if you really want to do it now, use X800 if your boiler can handle it; it is designed to do the job in 1 day.

 

[picbits]

Having a new boiler put in at the end of next month so got a bit of time to get things flushed out.

Just need to nurse this boiler / thermal store along till then.

 

[Razor900]

Just need to nurse this boiler / thermal store along till then.

If it's a thermal store then you're wasting your time with a couple of litres of cleaner!!

Whats the volume of the store?

 

[picbits]

Just need to nurse this boiler / thermal store along till then.

If it's a thermal store then you're wasting your time with a couple of litres of cleaner!!

Whats the volume of the store?

Pass - there are no markings to be able to tell.

I've got three more litres to bung in the system for the next flush. Each litre says its good for ten radiators.

I'd estimate the thermal store to be aroung 120-150 litres judging by the size of it.

 

[gremlin16]

I don't have any affiliation with Magnaclean/Adey but this has really opened my eyes to the amount of crud that accumulates in a system.

Dont worry to much about the crud blocking the magnaclean, especially the twin tech.

Give it a few months and it cleverly self cleans.

The bowl either cracks or the seal fails and automatically dumps carp and water all over the floor

Will never use plastic magnaclean carp again.
Better to use the brass bodied spirovent or the sentinel version.

 

[Agile]

As Ben has said if you use X800 then you can complete the cleaning in a few hours!

There is usually no advantage in taking any longer.

Tony

 

[picbits]

As Ben has said if you use X800 then you can complete the cleaning in a few hours!

There is usually no advantage in taking any longer.

Tony

Thanks for that Tony

I might carry on with what I'm doing with the weaker cleaner then give it a last minute blast with X800 to finish off the crud busting.

Dom

 

[gas4you]

What thermal store do you have? Not a boilermate 2 I hope

These are notorious rust buckets and you will probably never get all the crap out of it if you have one.

 

[picbits]

Goodness knows what it is. Its not huge and we've only ever been able to get around 1/4 of a bath from it. Even a morning shower is a bit of a struggle.

Its going to be ripped out next month and the old boiler replaced with a new combi boiler.

 

[picbits]

Here's the offending beastie.

 

[mickyg]

thats the albion style thermal store. If its the one I think it is, they are not to bad for contributing to sludge problems, apart from the obvious issues with hundreds of litres of static water. The main problem is the stupid coil design. If you cut it open when you take it out, you'll notice where the hot water coil enters the unit in 22mm it then converts to 4x 8 or 10mm seperate tubes, to increase heat transfer/surface area. Problem is in hard water areas they scale up..very quickly, more likely your problem by the sounds of it.