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Well done so far, it gets easier with practice, look on the bright side, at least the sludge is black...brown sludge is very naughty.
I'm intrigued. What is brown sludge?
Discuss Cold radiators in loft in the Plumbing Jobs | The Job-board area at PlumbersForums.net
Well done so far, it gets easier with practice, look on the bright side, at least the sludge is black...brown sludge is very naughty.
Oh sorry I missed this, my understanding is thusI'm intrigued. What is brown sludge?
I did Google Brown sludge but only found references to car radiators.2. Brown Ferric Sludge indicates that the system is continually introducing fresh water with air dissolved into it, maybe eg an open vented system is pumping over.
You are quite correct water cooled motor vehicles do suffer badly, we did look at automotive with Honeywell but there was no commercial traction so we both walked away It is not for me to criticiseI did Google Brown sludge but only found references to car radiators.
As my system is sealed hopefully brown sludge won't be a problem, but I am alarmed at the amount of black sludge I have come across in the loft pipes and radiators, which is strange as the magnaclean never seems to get very clogged up. I need to check it again now that I've re-introduced one of the loft radiators.
...a really good reverse pump out first is good...this should take two men all one day.
centralheatking
Well a proper power flush ought to incorporate reverse flush in my opinion...the trouble is a proper one really does cost hence naughty boys under quote or even quote but do not do it properly. If it was my gaff...I would take the day off and check it all...others on PF will explain what to watch for .....centralheatkingIs this different to a power flush?
Try finding a drain off at the lowest point possible in the whole building put a hose on it with a jubilee clip run to the outside. Then re visit your loft connect mains pressure to one tail.....blank off the other....first thing will be the rads will glug glug but dont touch them yet.I spent the weekend working on the towel rail in the loft. Removed the towel rail and the valves leaving only the copper tails, to which I attached my hosepipes. The other end of the supply/return pipe was connected together using a speedfit flexible hose. So, I have a loop and I pushed in mains pressure water to one radiator tail and the other tail had a hose with the end in a bucket.
No matter what I did, I couldn't get any water through this setup. Actually, there is a very tiny slither of water coming through, but barely anything.
I tried reversing the hose pipe connections and I tried isolating only one of the pipes (to shorten the length being cleaned i.e. hose pipes on both ends of a single pipe) but still no water came through. These pipes are well and truly blocked!
Last night I put some Sentinel X800 into both pipes in the hope this might loosen up the sludge and I will try flushing through again tonight.
I know Sentinel X800 is used for cleaning systems, but I'm not sure it will "dissolve" the hardened sludge in these pipes enough to move it. Can anyone recommend a better chemical? Would Fernox DS40 be better (it's certainly a lot more expensive).
I'm close to the point of giving up and accepting these two pipes will need to be replaced, but that then makes the job a whole lot more complicated due to access!
Any ideas would be welcome.
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