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When to get a power flush?
Is your boiler clanking or banging, does your system take much longer than it use to heat? Do some radiators not heat at all or only at the top or in certain sections of the rad? When a boiler is serviced, the internals of the boiler is checked and cleaned where necessary. A power flush is a cleaning of the heating system on the “wet side” of your heating system. We can check your heating system water for the presence of inhibitor which is crucial to the longevity of a heating system.
Why is inhibitor important?
When air and water mix within your system without chemicals being added to neutralise the corrosiveness of the water a type of rust is produced called magnetite. This is the breaking down of all metal components within your system. Therefore, on nearly all modern boilers manufacturers ask that a magnetic filter is fitted close to the boiler to prevent it from entering and blocking the boiler.
These magnetic filters can only trap so much before becoming blocked and allowing particles to pass the magnet within the filter. A power flush uses chemicals to break down magnetite or sludge that is sometimes stuck within radiators so it can be removed. As magnetite is quite heavy the normal flow of water will not carry it correctly to drain and so the use of the power flush machine which uses low pressure but high velocity to remove and filter the water is used. Once all rads and all system pipework are clear of magnetite an appropriate dose of inhibitor is put into the system which prevents any further breakdown of the system neutralising the system water and returning the system to a nearly new state. This takes on average a day but for any system above 13 Radiators, we would always allow for a second day of labour. The above estimated time does depend on each system requirement set out by the system cleanliness at the time of testing.