Central heating - powerflush

[Ian]

Ok basically our central heating is old, ****, not looked after. The boiler is about 20 years old apparently, radiators are about the same (i think) Heating will only come on with the hot water (3 way valve apparently?) the pump has just been replaced by british gas and been told we NEED a powerflush seeing as how the system is so old and not been looked after. Pilot light is also yellow and flickering rather than steady and blue, been told a simple service will sort this out as its just searching for oxygen. Basically british gas are quoting silly high figures to sort all this out which we just dont have, is it possible/advisable to do any of it ourselfs?

was thinking of replacing all/most of the radiators seeing as they are so old and not looked after more than likely going to spring a leak from rusting though, easy job im assuming? Also forgot to mention british gas wants to run new pipe from the radiators because the input and output are on the same side? guessing thats just cos they are old?

As for servicing the boiler my mate has not long started with swalec and says its a simple job, get a gauge to measure/balance the oxygen and gas then just a good clean out? Sounds easy enough?

powerflush im not sure about, with replacing the radiators would it make it easier? seeing as most of the sludge/rust would be in the old ones? We have the boiler downstairs and tank upstairs if that makes any sort of difference?

Just trying to cut some costs down, but if it means we **** up the heating system then obviously wont do it obviously!

EDIT

after a bit more looking around a powerflush aint advised as a diy job, draining the system with the right chemicals seems possible though? Removing the radiators, blasting them through with the hose outside, replacing then refil the system with some sort of system cleaner and run that for x amount of time (will say on there? depends on the product used from what i gather) then drain again, refill and add inhibitor? May not be a long term fix but this along with serviced boiler would give much better heating and prolong the life of everything a bit longer? or am i just looking at all this the wrong way?

 

[rick151081]

no get someone qulified to do it as its gas and water the gas you cant see so you cant tell if its leaking and the rads you can do yourself there straight forward but if thy leak its down to you to sort the damage where as if a qulified person dose it and it leaks its down to them to sort out any damage done and thy foot the bill

 

[Ian]

yeah the gas did get me thinking about it, apparently it really is **** easy with the guage though. Suppose i could always get some one around to double check it after? still be cheaper than getting them out to do it! Alsoi think some detectors may be a good investment!

Yeah i understand it'll be my fault if the radiators leak, tbh most of them would be replaced by new ones anyways, it just british gas quoted roughly £1800 for a powerflush and re-piping the radiators (something to do with input and output on the same side?) we all know "roughly" means "add another 500 - 1000 onto that quote"

I understand that replacing the radiators/flushing them out and then draining the system, cleaning, draining and filling again wont be as effective as a professional powerflush but surely its gonna be LOADS better than what we got now?

 

[rick151081]

could be better but then could end up worse but i would do the rads myself and the pipe work and check it with two hose pipes and some jubbile clips but the boiler i would get done by a pro and that aint goin to cost as much then

 

[speedysam]

how many radiators is there mate as dads a plumber he could come do ur rads jus hes not gas quailified

 

[Neve'o]

yeah the gas did get me thinking about it, apparently it really is **** easy with the guage though. Suppose i could always get some one around to double check it after? still be cheaper than getting them out to do it! Alsoi think some detectors may be a good investment!

Yeah i understand it'll be my fault if the radiators leak, tbh most of them would be replaced by new ones anyways, it just british gas quoted roughly £1800 for a powerflush and re-piping the radiators (something to do with input and output on the same side?) we all know "roughly" means "add another 500 - 1000 onto that quote"

I understand that replacing the radiators/flushing them out and then draining the system, cleaning, draining and filling again wont be as effective as a professional powerflush but surely its gonna be LOADS better than what we got now?

Not sure if this will help you or not but we had to have our central heating cleaned out at work, they used some special equipment with high pressure water/cleaning solution (iirc as I wasn't allowed to stand there and watch all day ) and the crap that came out of the rads and pipes was unbelievable! the heating worked much better afterwards, I would say its not something you should attempt yourself and if you did I doubt the results would be that great.

 

[k3v.gsi]

Power flush works by the treatment that goes in... and by the sounds of your system it could make more trouble for you..

if your rads are fed by 2 pipes at one end than they are very old.. i have only seen these once in my life..

and i would deffo not service the boiler yourself... get a gas safe engineer..

british gas are a rip off.. find a smaller company with a good rep to look at your system..

 

[MarkGSi]

To be honest a powerflush is very expensive and often unnecessary. I used to do loads of plumbing work with a mate and we used to take each rad off and flush the muck out with a hosepipe. You cant just keep flushing the system from a drain off as all the muck lies in the bottom of the rads, they will need to come off. Muck in the system usually shows up as sluggish warming up and uneven temperatures on the rad. Having said all the above, i would change the rads if they are showing signs of rusting out. If youre handy i would change the rads yourself and alter the pipework. Although time consuming, its an easy job and there is no reason not to do this yourself. You'll need to put the descaler in and make sure youre not sucking air into the system as this causes the sludge to build quicker. As for the boiler, leave that to the gas guys. You'll save lots doing the rads yourself.

 

[JimGSi]

personally, id be looking at replacing the boiler, and the rads, you could probably reuse most of the pipework, had ours done 18months ago, a complete replumb, an Electric Combi boiler (£3k) 8 rads and all the pipework and fitting a bathroom, came to 5k, if youve got gas, wipe £2k off that bill, and as your bathroom wont be completely replumbed and installed, as they will use some existing pipe runs, you could only be looking at 2k

 

[k3v.gsi]

There doing a boiler scrapage scheme at the mo.. so could save you some cash if your quick..

think its first come first served to 25000 homes

 

[astra855]

i happen to no some1 that works for british gas and my dad used to and each enginer has a set figure they have to meet for selling basicly usless tat that u dont need and powerflush is easy to do and cost them next to nothing basicly the enginer presses a button and sits on his ass allday and gets paided for it but on the other had it dose help the system as it allows water to flow freely round the system

 

[Ian]

well boiler is getting serviced tomorrow, then all the radiators are getting taken off and either blasted through with the hose or replace with new ones (gonna give this a go myself, doesnt look to hard tbh) when they are all back on then gonna flush the system with them chemicals to get some of the **** outta the pipes. Fair enough its not a powerflush but gonna be a LOAD better than now