Change Radiator and clean system

[Ch. Rajinder Nijjhar Jatt]

Hi,

I have over 25 years old central heating with Glow Worm Boiler. It is working fine and there are two water pumps. I intend cleaning the radiators and pipes and removing sludge from the system.

What treatment should I give to water circulating in the system? How many days should I leave the chemicals to work?

There is some rust showing on some radiators and I would like to change them with the new. They are old British standard threads and now we have metric threads. Any problem it would cause?

House is a large 4 bedroom house with kitchen, garage, dining and bath room. I intend putting power shower in the bathroom.

Your advice would be much appreciated. I shall be visiting my local stores such as B&Q stores for assistance and Graham central heating expert.

Rajinder

[Norman Billingham]

Most large builder's merchants or plumbing suppliers will sell you the stuff for cleaning a heating system and it comes with full instructions. When you've read them you may change your mind. The stuff is a weak acid. You put it in the system and run the heating flat out for about 24 hrs, then have tio flush it clean for ages. The acid will seek out every weakness so if you radiators really are rusty there is a fair chance they will start to leak, so be prepared to do some work,

Once the system is cleaned it needs Fernox in it to inhibit further corrosion.

[Richard Savage]

Different flushing agents stay in the system for different times, e.g. the Fernox stuff that I am about to add specifies 1 week, whereas the previous lot (from B+Q) specified 2 weeks.

Richard