PowerFlushing?

[Householder]

Hi there,

I recently commissioned a Heating Engineer to replace my ancient 29 year old Potterton Boiler with a new Vaillant Ecotec 418 Open Vent system. Part of the Quote included PowerFlushing the Central Heating System.

His definition of PowerFlushing was to locate a special pumping machine on the landing of the house, remove the circulation Pump and fit two connectors in its place. They he spent over two hours pumping the water around the system, opening one radiator at the time. At the end of the process, he opened the drain valve and allowed gravity to empty the system until clean water flowed through.

I've just watched a Fernox video describing the PowerFlushing process and to my mind my Plumber didn't PowerFlush the system at all! In fact all he did was to pump water around the system moving any sludge and debris from one radiator to the next. At the end, no PowerFlushing was involved, only gravity was used to flush the system.

From what I understand, instead of simply recirculating the dirty water from the machine straight back into the system, he should have had a clean water inlet and dirty water outlet attached to the PowerFlushing machine. This was not done.

Please can an expert advise if I've misunderstood something here? Or am I correct in my understanding that you can't actually PowerFlush a system unless you use the special pump to force clear water through the relevant part of the system allowing an equivalent amount of dirty water to exit into a drain.

Looking forward to your replies ASAP because the Engineer is due back this afternoon and I'm considering asking him to PowerFlush the system again, properly this time.

Best regards,

Householder

 

[nysk2008]

I assume he had a machine on your landing and he was correct in removing the pump and flushing this way. Flushing machines incorporate a pump and circulate water and chimicals around the system - to be honest it sounds like he did the job as described. 2hrs is however a pretty quick flush but that would also depend on how dirty the system was in the first place

 

[nysk2008]

please also remember these machines have a separate "dump" so the final drain down would have been the final stage of the flush - I doubt very much he was just circulating and reverse circulating system water. Hope this helps

 

[Householder]

Hi nysk2008,

Many thanks for the immediate reply - much appreciated.

But all he did was circulate the same sludge around each of the radiators - surely that's not PowerFlushing is simply PowerPumping.

PowerFlushing must surely involve powered flushing of the system with clean water and allowing the dirty to flow out until sludge is no longer an issue.

Circulating and re-circulating the same sludgy water cannot surely be called PowerFlushing can it?

It certainly isn't what is shown in the Fernox Video.

Any other thoughts please?

 

[Householder]

Hi nysk2008,

Thanks for your follow-up.

That's exactly what I believe he was doing. The special pump was not connected to an inlet water supply and there was no exit attached to the pump either.

I don't know what a separate 'dump' is but the thing was only a bit larger than a vacuum cleaner so it couldn't hold very many litres of water.

And he just moved from one radiator to the next when he felt like it. The Fernox video shows that it's easy to decide when to move on because you'll see clean water exiting the pump.

Still confused!

 

[clarky101]

Did he remove the expansion tank?

 

[SimonG]

Was it a fernox machine he used?

 

[nysk2008]

your totally right in what your saying. When I flush a system I circulate clean water, then I dump it, I refill, circulate dump, refill, circulate dump etc etc - during the process I circulate water around each rad and dump, clean water again and so on; then the system is circulated fully with chemicals - anyway you get the picture. you can also look at the Kamco website that will give further information regarding flushing or alternatively kits are available for you to check if a system has been flushed adequately. Did your engineer have a hose on his/her machine to dump the dirty system water? whilst refilling with clean water?

Hi nysk2008,

Many thanks for the immediate reply - much appreciated.

But all he did was circulate the same sludge around each of the radiators - surely that's not PowerFlushing is simply PowerPumping.

PowerFlushing must surely involve powered flushing of the system with clean water and allowing the dirty to flow out until sludge is no longer an issue.

Circulating and re-circulating the same sludgy water cannot surely be called PowerFlushing can it?

It certainly isn't what is shown in the Fernox Video.

Any other thoughts please?

 

[Dotty]

Crack open a bleed valve on one of your rads, let it run into a clean rag for a moment or two, the first bit WILL be dirty (it always is regardless how good the flush is), then see how dirty your water is.

You could be worrying about nothing!

T'internet is the worst tool ever if you're looking for bad news!

 

[nysk2008]

very true, sometimes I google if I get a rash on my arm from insulation in the loft and before I even realise the internet says Ive had a stroke and got some sort of tropical disease that will kill me in hours

Crack open a bleed valve on one of your rads, let it run into a clean rag for a moment or two, the first bit WILL be dirty (it always is regardless how good the flush is), then see how dirty your water is.

You could be worrying about nothing!

T'internet is the worst tool ever if you're looking for bad news!