Central Heating Power Flush/Clenze

[Tom]

Hi All Just wondered if anyone could tell me what a Power Flush of my central heating system involves. I've also heard of Power Cleanse, is this the same thing? How long does it take and will it be worth it? Tom

[Cash]

Tom,

No information on how Power Cleanse performs, but I used British Gas to power flush my system in 2002, and it changed the efficiency of my heating - which is still as good today [1]. The cost at the time was £460 or so for a

7 radiator system.

It involves around a day of work, and they connect the power flush machine to the system at the c/h pump, stick a drain pipe on the lowest drain off valve and flush the system and then refill it using any necessary protective additives (there is a little more to it than this potted version to do thorough job).

[1] Many will decry British Gas on price etc, but whilst they are certainly not the cheapest, I have found them to be best on service and after sales problems (they arrived on the agreed day and time and didn't quibble about rectification works).

I had a few problems after the flush was done, but they came back to sort out some defective pipe work, changed the C/H pump and heat exchanger in the boiler, and then re-flushed the system - and all for the original price.

In the event of further problems, they will also power flush my system again for free for as long as the existing system is there - and I maintain the correct additive levels at my own cost.

Hope this helps

Cash

[Gio]

By how much did it increase your efficiency and how did you calculate the gain? I doubt if you recovered the £460 outlay unless your system was shot to begin with.

Gio

[Cash]

Gio

You answered your own question!

And as someone who has a fairly extensive knowledge of general building maintenance, the power flush was a far cheaper option than renewing my system (the decision was a last resort BTW after 3 months of problems) - and trying to do it DiY with a hose pipe was *NOT* an option.

And yes, I more than "recovered the £460 outlay" by *NOT* having to replace my system - and all the radiators were left actually working (and still are), which enabled me to turn down the various system thermostats.

Cash

[Gio]

snip

Cheers Cash, I am glad it worked out for you. The point I was trying to make (badly) was that a power flush can often be a financial rip-off and is miss sold in many cases.

Gio

[Andy Champ]

Which if these two procedures - the power flush, or replacing the pump and heat exchanger - was the one that "changed the efficiency"? I'd suspect the latter, but that's just an educated guess. What are your reasons for believing it was the former?

Andy

[Cash]

Gio,

Thanks for the reply.

I quite agree that there are many a rip-off with power flushing, but I must admit I find British Gas far better than most (and I've dealt with them [and plumbing contractors] for a long time, privately and professionally) - but at least they put all their prices up-front, along with what they will do for that price.

Also, when they do the work and there a problems with it, they never quibble about the rectification of it (unless someone is trying to take them for a ride).

As for the power flush in my own home, the British Gas supervisor came in and had a good nose around my system, and then we had a fairly long technical question and answer session (which involved a bit of colourful language and the occasional statement of "what a load of bullshit" on my part [and his btw]), and we settled on the best method of dealing with a system that was then around 30 years old which had never seen additives in the water.

This system has had problems with very fine particles of silt getting into it (blocked pipes had been replaced by British Gas about 5 years before the flush) along with the various oxides from the rads and pipes - and the whole cycle was beginning again, so it really was time for drastic action,

So really, British Gas don't rip people off - their pricing is just higher than most. LOL

All the best

Cash

[Cash]

And,

See my reply to Gio.

To answer your questions though in the order that you asked them.

1 The power flush resolved the problem in itself.

2 The pump was fairly old, and for some reason, when they refitted it after the flush it was simply noisy (but I will accept that could have been the pipework that it was attached too causing the noise, which was changed at the same time as the pump [the system was badly designed and installed at the time of construction of the house])

3 The heat exchanger was also changed because of noise problems - about a week after the pump, and when completed, all became quite and 'SWMBO' stopped moaning in my ear - then I (and BG) knew that things were successful!!

4 As for my reasons for believing it was the former - well I suppose 40 years of building maintenance (industrial and residential) may have had some bearing on that - oh, and not simply believing all that I was told by British Gas (and still don't). ;-)

Cash

[Davey]

Others have explained what a PF is (best is YAPH's response in uk.d-i-y), but a (highly recommended) good, much cheaper alternative is to drain all heating and take all rads off in turn into back garden and hose out, hitting rad with rubber mallet to loosen any gunk. Do this after running heating with fernox cleaner in it for a week. Ensure you fill and run, drain, fill and run, then drain, fill and add inhibitor to system after replacing rads. I attached a hose to each drain point on the downstairs rads and opened up valves with the feed to the tank open and flushed until the water ran clear, which took about ten minutes each time. This also got rid of any nasty air locks. Drain a bit off with header feed off, added inhibitor, feed back on. Heating much warmer.

Job's a good one :)

[Andy Champ]

Great answer. Glad to see you share some of my cynicism too. This at least partly comes from M-I-L's experience where a power flush failed to fix her radiator, but replacing the internal feed pipe (or whatever you call it) did the job.

Andy