Hi All, I have a Gas Combi boiler which is about 15 yr. old, British Gas tell me that it is functioning alright but there is "Sludge" in the radiators which is causing Noises and intermittent cooling of the lower part of three radiators. They say it is not covered under the Maintenance agreement and I should pay for it to be "Power Flushed". My question is this too involved for a DIY Selfer and what is the procedures and pitfalls.
Any helpful advice would be appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this mail Take care
My advice is not to use BG for this power flush service. They are over priced and they may well sub it out to a local plumber and milk the profits. Get a local plumber to give you a quote.
We had a thread about this in some detail about a week ago.
Please do a search on Google Groups.
Briefly though:
- This is a standard BG game to extract several hundred pounds from you.
- If you want to pay for a power flush, you can get a better deal from a local plumber or heating engineer, but even that in my view is expensive for what it is.
- You can hire the power flushing equipment equipment and buy the chemicals from a hire place.
- If you take a look back at previous posts, I have described a method which involves removing radiators and taking them outside to be flushed. I found this to be completely effective and considerably less expensive than any of the above. Apart from repeating the warning that you need to be careful not to drip water or sludge on the carpet because it stains, I won't repeat the entire details here.
I paid about £12 monthly for many years to BG for a service contract, but although they informed me that they could no longer repair the boiler, the monthly charge was not reduced. The final straw was when my heating system started knocking badly. BG didn't offer me a power flush, only a new boiler at over £2000. I finally solved the problem myself by completely draining, flushing and refilling with inhibitor. The result is that I have now had an efficient, silent working system for over two years at a cost of less than £30. Needless to say I immediately cancelled the service contract. Over the years I could easily have paid for a complete new system. My advice is to drain and flush your system with Fernox or an alternative, and then refill with a corrosion inhibitor. It's time consuming and not the best time of year to do it, but well worth it if you persevere. The water from my radiators has never contained sludge and the water is perfectly clear.
Hi All, I was so surprised to find such a speedy positive response to my appeal for help on this problem, my personal thanks to:AR WADSWORTH, BILL R, ANDY HALL, TERRY D AND MICHAEL MCNEIL for their input. I shall search Google for Andy's instructions and report the outcome later. I must say what a superb group this is.
Regards Take care
tell me that it is
Noises and intermittent
the Maintenance
too involved for a DIY
Bill
We had a thread about this in some detail about a week ago.
Please do a search on Google Groups.
Briefly though:
- This is a standard BG game to extract several hundred pounds from you.
- If you want to pay for a power flush, you can get a better deal from a local plumber or heating engineer, but even that in my view is expensive for what it is.
- You can hire the power flushing equipment equipment and buy the chemicals from a hire place.
- If you take a look back at previous posts, I have described a method which involves removing radiators and taking them outside to be flushed. I found this to be completely effective and considerably less expensive than any of the above. Apart from repeating the warning that you need to be careful not to drip water or sludge on the carpet because it stains, I won't repeat the entire details here.
I'm sure most people would have already turned their heating on by now! Either that, or we're just having a localised cold period down in the SE. If heating's being used, now isn't the time to be doing unnecessary maintenance which could be deferred to a time when the heating is less important.
I had to do the worst one of my daughter's rads yesterday. Old curtains on floor to catch drips. Screwed down both rad valves. [had blanked off washing m/c hose connectors ready in case rad valve did not
100% shutoff] Undid one end with cat litter tray underneath to catch potentially very staining black water. Opened bleed valve so most drained out. Undid other rad/valve connection. Tipped as much as poss into container. Closed bleed valve and turned rad upside down to carry it outside. 2 people would be best with big rad. Flushed it through with hosepipe. Replaced and repressurized combi system. Took 20 minutes ... the rest can wait until the spring :-)
Hi All, Promised to report back on this one but my computer has been down with intermittent access to the newsgroups on NTL. The removal of the rads proved a huge success, they were "sludged up" Confronting the BG engineer with the fact the system had been Flushed thoroughly, He then pronounced the Diverter valve was indeed faulty. We finally wait for the replacement which we are told is on order. So big thank you to everyone who contributed. Best regards Take care
Regards Take care
tell me that it is
Noises and intermittent
the Maintenance
too involved for a DIY
Bill
We had a thread about this in some detail about a week ago.
Please do a search on Google Groups.
Briefly though:
- This is a standard BG game to extract several hundred pounds from you.
- If you want to pay for a power flush, you can get a better deal from a local plumber or heating engineer, but even that in my view is expensive for what it is.
- You can hire the power flushing equipment equipment and buy the chemicals from a hire place.
- If you take a look back at previous posts, I have described a method which involves removing radiators and taking them outside to be flushed. I found this to be completely effective and considerably less expensive than any of the above. Apart from repeating the warning that you need to be careful not to drip water or sludge on the carpet because it stains, I won't repeat the entire details here.
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