I have been looking to downsize and have seen a sixty or so year old bungalow. The radiatprs are c 1968-70. Assuming that electrolytic action has hollowed them out and that they may need replacing, are the copper pipes likely to be equally affected?
It happens that pinnerite formulated :
Copper, no, however.... Radiators rust from the inside out, if they have not been kept topped up with inhibitor. The rust and gundge tends to then block copper pipes, especially so the small bore systems.
All depends on how well the system has been looked after.
Such installations were often wired as a single pipe system, which is incompatible with almost all modern boilers, so you would need to run a new return pipe, and move one connection of each radiator from the single pipe to the new return pipe.
Or put a new system in, either plastic below the floor or microbore to each room in the loft below the loft insulation and drop down behind the curtains.
Owain
Once you start disturbing something that old and with unknown corrosion inhibitor history you are asking for trouble if you don't replace the whole lot in one go. It could well be a nightmare of pinhole leaks otherwise (shortly after you refill it with fresh oxygenated water).
If there is a Fernox certificate on the CH header tank you might just be OK, but I wouldn't chance it myself.
Preferably done before you move into the property so that it is easier to access the pipes and much less disruptive. Living without heating or hot water is no fun - especially in winter.
Pinholes do develop in copper pipes, and not just those in CH systems. DAMHIKT! ISTR that a few decades ago there was some sub-standard copper piping that got widely used, but is now giving pinholing problems. Others here may have more information.
Yeah, a lot depends on the history. Including has the system ever been replaced in the past? Radiator sizing in the late 60's would have been for flow/return temps of 75/65 C or there abouts, rather than the 65/55 flow/return that a condensing boiler likes so it runs in condensing mode.
The some of the radiators here are from the mid 70's and aren't leaking despite half the system being replaced with new copper and rads, thermal store added etc. I suspect one of the first things I did would be bung a bottle of inhibitor into the system nearly 20 years ago mind. The previous owners had trouble matching fixing type (nail v screw) let alone size... so I doubt they did anything in the
10 years they lived here, no tell a lie a new boiler was fitted a couple of years before we moved in so perhaps it got inhibtor then. +1
Young, softy, namby pambies might. Depends what you are used to. We didn't have central heating until I was about 10. Generally the only heat in the house was an open coal fire in the back living room. The gas fire in the Front Room was only lit on special occasions, like present opening at Christmas. HW was from a gravity back boiler from the coal fire. Hot water bottles, blankets, eiderdowns and supply of pennies to suck and melt the frost on the inside of the windows was order of the day in bedrooms.
My system is late 70s. Rads still fine - but then I'm paranoid about keeping inhibitor up to date.
But would be very surprised if the copper needed replacing regardless of inhibitor or not.
My house was built in 1968 and it had a single pipe system. It just didn't work. I had the whole thing redone; pipes, radiators, the lot.The difference was incredible and the fuel bill dropped to a quarter of what it had been.
Bill
and target temps were lower, eg 13C in bedrooms.
It's not impossible to just add another rad or upgrade the occasional one, but the condition of rads & pipes is at best unknown. It might be blocked beyond hope.
NT
Identical description of my home, with an Anderson shelter in the front room. My dad lined it with asbestos. We were lucky to survive. :)
Thanks for your advice. I will try and get a professional to look at it ASAP.
Just a warning on microbore, especially in a very old house with difficult accesses. I had this done on mine (four kids including a baby, tight finances and heavy work pressure). It was mostly OK but the main living room never got enough heat. Too much hassle to get the plumber back in the end, eventually I traced it to poor flow in very inaccessible microbore (either kinked or almost filled with solder from end-feeds). I would not have it again (except maybe in a bungalow with a concrete floor, and simple drops from the roof space).
And that wasn't for very long, as you got one Big Present plus socks and slippers if you were lucky.
Owain
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