Powder Flushing domestic heating systems

[Badger]

Hi,
Does anyone out there have any knowledge or experience of the Powder Flushing process?
I am tempted to get them round to unblock my domestic open vented system. But at £1000 for ten rads I want to get a second opinion.
Can anyone vouch for them?
Do you know anyone that’s used them?
I’ve had several plumbers round and the last one suggested I contact Powderflush online as he was not able to guarantee that simply power flushing would solve the circulation problem. I have always suspected I had a circulation problem and he confirmed this when he ran a test on my Viesmann Vitodens 100 boiler. Any thoughts/ comments would be appreciated.

 

[gmartine]

You have an open vented system, if you know how I'd start by adding some heavy duty cleaner to the F/E tank like X400 or F3. Boiler could also be scaled up.

 

[Deleted member 32524]

Never worked with powder. A G for it though, maybe I will. What size are pipes on heating system, microbore, 15mm, 22mm? All rads or some not working. How old is the pump? At a grand to clean an old system you might want to think about a whole new lot of pipes, boiler included if it is as old as the system.

 

[Badger]

System is probably as old as the house which was built in the 70’s. The pipes are generally 15 mm copper with some plastic where we’ve had new rads fitted in extension. Upstairs rads are all new and tend to be warmer than downstairs but I can never get them really hot as the boiler doesn’t fire for long enough (due to suspected blockage). Boiler is only 6 years old.
I fitted a new pump in the summer and flushed the system through with water only, there was an immediate improvement with the boiler performance in the way that it stayed on for longer before cutting out and there was definitely more heat getting into the system but still most radiators were not getting very hot. With Autumn setting we have been using the CH more and I have noticed the boiler has reverted to cycling more again, suggesting that there is a lack of circulation/ blockage again. When I removed the old pump there was definitely a lot of crud in the impeller and I’m gusssing that all I really achieved by fitting the new pump was to displace/ redistribute muck in the system.

 

[Best]

A magnetic filter on the return at boiler would remove any crud that is is suspension.
You could try some power flushing chemicals as said, like F5 Fernox and let the filter work.
At £1000 for powder flushing 10 rads, I would rather buy new rads

 

[HeatingPro]

A magnetic filter only take out the rust in suspension. If the problems he’s having is this bad already, then your past the stage where it’s the lightest rust in the system is causing problems. There will be heavy build-ups in the boiler, pipes and radiators. Replacing all the radiators will have little effect because the pipes and boiler are 80% of the problem, in my experience. That’s because the narrowest parts are in the boiler and pipes, not the radiators. Chemical cleaners can only loosen up the heavy rust, the loose rust will now circulate around and probably cause more problems! You have to have the system cleaned, so that the rust gets removed from the system permanently.

 

[Last Plumber]

When you say 'generally 15mm copper', is that large enough? You need to find out the heat requirements (output) of the system you have and that will govern the pipe sizes needed. Any pipe will have a maximum flow rate which is governed by pump duty, length of run and route.

It is worth checking prior to spending on a flush, unless you know for a fact that it is blocked, or if at one time all worked perfectly well and deteriorated?