The water in the central heating system (a conventional gas boiler, half inch copper pipe, panel radiators system) in this house had no inhibitor in it when I moved in. I immediately added inhibitor.
How do I check whether the system is partly blocked with corrosion products?
Is that what they sell you guys in England, inhibitors. In the US where I get to -25f we dont do anything on closed 100 yrs old + HW boilers systems, you dont have to. If you want drane a few gallons at the begining of every heat season. The oxygen will cook out. The oxygen was cooked out in the first few hours of use when it was installed. The boilers here last 20-60 years, the piping hundreds. If you were adding water constantly from leaks then its a different issue and the bottom of the boiler will scale up, a distinctive popping sound will be heard as it heats. You never fill a boiler with new water and dont run it for days, or the water is oxgenated.
AIUI, the main sludge problem with many UK systems arises from an electrochemical reaction. A large number of systems here have cast iron heat exchangers in the boilers, supplying steel radiators through copper pipes. The stated purpose of inhibitors is to slow down the exchange of of iron and copper ions but that can never be stopped completely.
Don't you have similar problems in the US, or do you use steel pipes?
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