Microbore blockage

When I was having some work done on my kitchen I asked the plumber to include re-piping a radiator (the pipes were under the plasterboard and went to a manifold above the ceiling.)

When I got home from work, the job had been done and he told me the pipes were completely clear but there had been some "gunge" in the manifold connection which he had dug out with a bit of wire.

I was wishing I had got him to look at another couple of slow radiators whilst he was about it - but I missed the opportunity of the ceiling being down. Now I only have limited access to the manifold via a hatch in the bedroom floor and certainly don't want to get a leak.

I have tried to use the mains pressure to flush out the blockages of these sluggish feed pipes (the return is clear) by opening the radiator drain with the return closed. I have also tried connecting a hose to reverse the flow.

The next attempt will be to put some good cleaner in the system and try to force it into the sluggish pipes by closing off the other radiators.

Ideally, I feel I would like to apply an alternating "blow / suck" to the pipe to try and move the blockage.

Any suggestion on a good cleaner and/or a good way to shift the blockage.

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Reply to
DerbyBorn
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I used some twisted cable which was a good fit (like bike brake/gear cable) to clear a blockage in a neighbours microbore system. Disconnected at radiator and discovered which pipe had no flow. Slowly worked cable into blocked pipe (embeded in concrete floor) until I reconed it was at mainfold. Withdrew cable with lots of old towels on kitchen floor. Lots of gunge flow. Reconnected pipe. Still works ten years later!

Jim

Reply to
Jim Chisholm

There's machines that do that, plus add compressed air to clean out puipes. One's called Rothenberger ROPULS, er, here:

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Something to hire, of course. May be overkill, 'pends on the price...

Thomas Prufer

Reply to
Thomas Prufer

Thomas Prufer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Interesting - better than a general flush / clean.

Reply to
DerbyBorn

In article , DerbyBorn writes

From experience there is a lot you can achieve by reversing the flow/pressure on a blockage. The closed loop powerflush devices have a number of benefits in that you can, reverse flow, keep the flush chemicals in the loop and most will heat the flow for greater effectiveness. If you want to go the whole hog then you can use an acid flush to dissolve particulates but you need to run a neutralising flush after and make sure it returns to neutral pH.

You can hire them at a reasonable rate but you might need to look around a bit to find the more aggressive dissolving and matching neutralising chemicals.

I copied the flow reversing valve setup from one so I could mains pressure flush a clogged up system and when I found that mains pressure was not enough I added a port to connect an electric tyre inflation compressor to it. That got me enough flow to get mains water through it and clear the worst of the black scale that had accumulated.

Reply to
fred

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