Ideal colour of CH water after Powerflush

I guess if the rad has a goodly and hardened clump of crud in it, it'll be being peeled away very slowly and will turn your water light broon.

How do you know that this rad is the worst? And is there any other way of telling that it's been fairly well cleaned? Are you agitating it to help release the solidified clumps?

 

So it flushed through with a hose quite easily? So there are no actual blockages or restrictions in the rad? In which case, surely the top should be quite hot and not chust luke warm?

Are you sure the valves are working?

 

Its killing me resisting to say " I told you so" but I' won't, Ill hold it back, Its not big and its not clever,,,

second though, have to tried a thermal camera ? they' 're good for takeing your money too

 

I'll explain that to you,

the sludge was settled in the rads, you've stirred it so it needs to settle back down again,

 

yep, fraid so, I'm not going to get on my soap box here but a powerflush is an ' invented' job, its a sales gimmick that earns big money for the manufactures of powerflushing machines,
the best way to clean rads is take um outside put a hose pipe on and a bit of fairy green washing up liquid and give them a blasting,

 

Mr Plum is a time-served plumber of huge and vast experience. He's chust about seen it all.

But...

If your system has sludged up, then it's going to cause problems. With an old 'traditional' boiler with huge waterways and few 'diverters' or anything else, this sludge will mean the odd cold spot and slightly reduced flow.

However, with a new modern condescending boiler (fnurr...) with very narrow waterways, it will mean death in time.

So, you need to remove that sludge. You could try and remove each rad and flush them through with a hose - that will help, but not shift really packed sludge. To my understanding, this will have limited effect - I did try this with my own system when I swapped boilers 10 years ago, and it certainly cleared out a lot of dark nasty stuff, but a lot still remained - as I found out to my cost over time.

So, that will help but likely not 'sort'.

So you could try a powerflush (Magnclean) which will target each rad individually with a forced flow with powerful cleaning chemicals and a filter to collect the carp, and mega agitation of each rad at the same time, and this will shift most stuff and might even be enough. But some really packed rads will still be a problem and could still be partially loaded with gunge.

So, what to do? Chust what you have done - a powerflush to remove the majority of glug, followed by the install of a dual-purpose filter and the addition of further cleaners.

You've done the big job and almost certainly remove the worst of the gunge, but it's not all sparkly yet. And you've also fitted a dual-purpose filter - good move.

Ok, instead of now adding 'inhibitor', instead add a double-dose of something like X800 and run your system as normal. Check, and if necessary clean out, your filter every couple of weeks. Let this run for 2 months at least.

Report back on what your filter has collected.

After a couple of months, drain down fully, flush through the whole system with a hose and refill with X100 (inhibitor) and X900 (a long-term cleaner) - and sit back knowing that your system will continue to be cleaned.

Mr Plum seems to consider powerflushes, chemicals and filters to be 'snake oil', and that the same job can be carried out by chust hosing through each rad out in the garden. I love the guy, but have personal reasons to believe that more than this is required - even a small amount of carp over time will mess up a modern boiler like mine. And chemicals and filters have fixed my system on separate two occasions now. So I believe in them.

Sooooooo.... What you've done is good and not wasted. The addition of cleaning chemicals and your filters will continue to clear your system. Ergo - you've done the right thing - chust give it more time.

Er, you have added cleaning chemicals to your system now as well, haven't you? (X900, for example.)

 

Quick question when you power flushed the system did the kit have the two large inline magnetic filtration fitted inline? If not all you are doing is send the muck back round and round and round despite using the dump process. Also did you isolate and treat each rad independently agitating it during the process?
Despite Toms adamant stance on the process it will work if done correctly.

 

Powerflushing is easy money, so I am very sceptical when it's recomended. I've done ok with running a cleaner in system for a week or so then draining down and refilling and treating with a proprietry treatment. The water was black on first drain off, so I hosed out all the rads, 3 years later I drained off to fit a towel rail and a new valve elsewhere in the system and the water was gin clear.
I think continual treatment is the answer.
Powerflushing may well have it's place, but as a sceptical sparky,I think not near as often as we are led to believe!