Virtually new radiators failing one by one

Hi all, an update on the problem; we decided to bite the bullet and replace most of the system including the boiler so we got British Gas out to give us a quote for a combi boiler. The guy was very helpful and said that our water pressure wasn't sufficient to have a combi boiler and that he wouldn't recommend replacing anything until we'd got to the root of the problem. He suggested we get a British Gas Service Engineer out so we did.

He came out two days later and, despite looking like he was twelve years old (I know, it's my age), he diagnosed the problem very quickly and spent a good few hours checking everything out. The problem (as I suspect most of you told me) was that there is a blockage in the pipe just before the pump so the boiler is happily heating water which is then just going up the expansion pipe and flowing into the expansion tank in the loft. Our three-way valve was also broken so when we turned the hot water on it heated up the radiators too.

He believes there's lots of spiky metal **** going round the system which is causing the pinholing and proposed a powerflush which we have agreed to. It's a risk in that we don't know if any of the other radiators will leak when the powerflush is done but I've visually inspected them all and will have everything crossed when they do it. the engineer reckons that if they survive the powerflush they should be ok for the foreseeable future and so no need to replace.

The guy also serviced the boiler and said that even though its 20 years old it still works fine so no immediate need to replace. Having had all the hassle recently we have agreed to go onto British Gas's HomeCare plan which also made the service engineer's visit very reasonable cost-wise. The British Gas powerflush is pricey compared with other third parties I've seen but they will fit a gadget that will trap any more junk and possibly replace the pump as part of the service too.

We had also had a water test done by ScaleMaster whose inhibitor was used and that said that there was some in there but it was very much diluted.

So the conclusion seems to be that the blockage has caused further rust material to build up because the water has largely been cycling round the expansion tank instead of going round the radiators and maybe we should have had a powerflush done when the radiators were replaced last time.

The powerflush is scheduled for two weeks time so I'll let you know how it all goes. In the meantime, thanks again for all the help, much appreciated.

 

Ok, had the powerflush and it went very well. Turned the heating on and after a couple of days we had a leak in the dining room radiator. Contacted British Gas and they are going to replace it FOC under the Homecare contract we now have. They are coming out in a few weeks to fit the two radiators that had previously leaked too, although we have to pay for that. All in all we feel much happier now. We have a working system (boiler a bit old but we'll leave that for now) and some peace of mind through the contract we have with BG. I have to say that all 3 of the BG guys we've had out have been great and we've made huge progress; they aren't that cheap but the quality seems to be there. I'm in danger of sounding like a British Gas commercial now so I'll sign off, but thanks to everyone on the forum for their help on this. Much appreciated.

 

By the way the guy that did the powerflush said that the amount of gunge in the system was a 9.5 on a scale of 1 to 10.