Power Flushing

[flyboy]

I have just had my central heating system power flushed and this is a picture of how the machine was connected. I was told the lockshield on the rad was closed to balance it. Is this right. It took a couple of hours. Any comments?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4353867027_1ec97c481d_m.jpg

 

[oldplumber]

Not how i would connect in to a system, you are better off whipping out the pump and connecting into the tails of the flow.return thro the pump to ensure a decent flow around the sustem, im not sure that was achieved with your set up . It normally takes me around 4-5 hours or more to comlete a 4 bed house properly isolating each rad in turn and flush through gthe cleanser and refill with inhibitor, then balance out all the rads again. Prehaps im being to efficient, or was your guy just flushing out the bathroom rad?

 

[flyboy]

Thanks for that - It was supposed to be a full system powerflush which I was having done before a new boiler was fitted. I dont think any radiators were closed off - and certainly there was no rebalancing. You definately are not too efficient - I suspect your clients get a 'proper job'.

 

[Kip]

Flush can take upto a full day, done properly, closing rads, reversing flow, dumping water many times testing the ph levels and filling back up with inhibitor and balancing correctly.

For it to take 2 hours i doubt a proper job was done.

 

[Transcoman]

Not how i would connect in to a system, you are better off whipping out the pump and connecting into the tails of the flow.return thro the pump to ensure a decent flow around the sustem, im not sure that was achieved with your set up . It normally takes me around 4-5 hours or more to comlete a 4 bed house properly isolating each rad in turn and flush through gthe cleanser and refill with inhibitor, then balance out all the rads again. Prehaps im being to efficient, or was your guy just flushing out the bathroom rad?

Exactly the way I do it too oldplumber, there really is no better way. Going through the tails of a rad could end up with it taking a short cut and heading back to the powerflush unit, it doesn't always end up going all around the system.

 

[Plucky]

Whoever connected the machine up like that hasnt a clue, all that will happen is the water will be pumped into the towel rad and back out the towel rad. Missing out most of the system.

As said above the best place is either where the pump is or somewhere on the primary pipework to the boiler. This way it is easy to have the boiler running whilst flushing. A hot flush is 100 times better than a cold one.

 

[payney1974]

Whoever connected the machine up like that hasnt a clue, all that will happen is the water will be pumped into the towel rad and back out the towel rad. Missing out most of the system.

As said above the best place is either where the pump is or somewhere on the primary pipework to the boiler. This way it is easy to have the boiler running whilst flushing. A hot flush is 100 times better than a cold one.

How do you do a hot flush? Do you just heat the systemup prior to flushing or fire boiler up with powerflush connected to pump? This is of course if the old boiler still works.

 

[moogwai]

i hope you aint paid the fella who did it flyboy.....if you have get your money back!!!! like everyone else has said a powerflush should take a minimum of 4 hours..and thats if it's only a small system,ive done systems with 20+ rads on and that took me 13 hrs!!!
and again...best place to connect onto the heating circuit is via the pump valves on a open vent system or the pump housing on a combi boiler.
if this isn't poss connect into the primary pipework and if the boiler can't be fired you can buy a heating element you can add to your powerflushing equipment.

 

[heating-eng]

I have just had my central heating system power flushed and this is a picture of how the machine was connected. I was told the lockshield on the rad was closed to balance it. Is this right. It took a couple of hours. Any comments?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4353867027_1ec97c481d_m.jpg

i have spent many years doing powerflushing and to be honest i have never seen anything as bad as that .
you have been totally ripped off this could in no way have helped your central heating.

 

[flyboy]

Thanks for all your replies - confirming what I thought. No I have not paid for the powerflush. The powerflush was the first part of the work to replace a gas boiler and hot water cylinder - and not a lot went right. I don't have time to list them all, but really obvious ones were inacessible hot water cylinder drain - so inacessible that I could not tell if one was fitted at the bottom back entry into the cylinder. Then there was the flue that sloped the wrong way causing dripping outside... the problem fixed by adjusting the plume to point upwards, needless to say this did not work!

There is also a problem with the controls behaving very strangely and inconsistently, like the boiler coming on when it was switched off and I turned the room stat down .... but it does not do this consistently. Also I have had the pump starting up when I turned the hot water stat down. I have had them to look at it and they seem convinced that its the diverter valve that they are going to replace.

The guy involved is on the gas safe register.