Fernox or Sentinel for recently powerflushed very dirty microbore system ?

[PSH]

My Mother had her microbore system powerflushed a couple of years ago by "Powerflush Ltd" ,who did a marvelous job of cleaning out 40 years worh of sludge and got all her rads working again. The guy who did it, was honest enough to warn us that due to the microbore system having such stupidly tight bends and the huge amount of sludge in the system ,that more sludge could still be lurking and move around the system eventually causing one or two rads to run cooler over time . Sure enough two rads on the same run are now running luke warm, So I went into the attic and think i have found a small section of pipe on the return run from the problem rad where it bends around a tight corner just before it enters the manifold .With the help of a friend ,I am going to cut out the section where it suddenly goes from hot to cold and replace it . If we get it working ,I would like to know what you guys reccomend I put in the system afterwards to dissolve any remaining sludge, Fernox something or Sentinel something or what about Salamanda ? . Once I have run that around the system for a few weeks I would like to know what type of inhibitor I should use please. Also where is the best place to put the cleaner in the system, by draining the header tank and putting it in that way or drain a rad and putting it in there ?

Thanks .

Paul.

 

[Reg Man]

Fernox F3 is a good product. I would drain down the system a little then put it in the F&E and refill the system first. Leave it in for a few days on heat, then flush it out. Then check your water quality with litmus paper, looking for a PH of 7. Put Fernox inhibitor in at the end. Its a brave man who power flushes a micro bore system.

 

[Ermintrude]

My preference would be drain down and flush each leg via valves and hose in to drain, then rads, then x 800 in headder tank and let it run for 3 weeks. Then drain, flush and inhibitor . Two bottles in headder

 

[TomLane]

I'd also recommend cleaning out the F&E tank whilst you're up there. Quite often the sludge builds up in the bottom below the outlet to fill the system & on refilling all this sludge is disturbed & distributed through the system undoing some of the work that the cleaner has done! A wet vac to get the last bit of water out then some rags to give it a good clean is recommended!!

 

[FD Powerflow]

Just my two pence worth but no cleaner dissolves sludge. Its Iron Oxide so you would only be moving the sludge around the system, which is one of the reasons powerflushing microbore isn't a good idea. Best practice would be to get a heating engineer round to clean out the F&E tank with a blue henry, add a TF1 or Magnaclean to the return, dose the system with F3 and get them to come back a few days later to empty the filter. If they fit a TF1 its possible for you to empty the magnetite without having to break the seal so potentially you could service it yourself.

 

[PSH]

What do you mean by F&E ? I intend to clean out the tank as advised .As we are fairly sure which section of pipe is blocked, hopefully most of the sludge will be removed when we cut the section out and clean or replace it. The cleaner is just to put in system to shift any left over dirt ,after the pipe is back in place and it's all working again. After about a week, i will drain system down again,draining out any sludge ,then i will put in some inhibitor . thanks for all the replies folks.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

F&E feed and expansion, the little tank in the loft.

 

[Centralheatking]

Some fellas in Bradford sold their own stuff - water, a bit of milk, and a squirt of wd 40
all logo ed up. They got caught in the end - I always use branded products Sentinel
is best value.

centralheatking

 

[sputnick]

Totally agree about putting a magnaclean device or similar in. Once you start churning up the muck in the system you need a way to trap it before it gets back to the boiler. Sentinel x100 is good for afyercare

 

[Ermintrude]

+1 on mag