Maintenance | jperrettplumbing

Central Heating System Maintenance

Why is central heating system maintenace so important?

Maintaining the "health" of your central heating system can have many benefits to you as a homeowner. Your central heating will be more efficient, quieter, less likely to breakdown and your boiler will last a lot longer, than if fitted to a system left to its own devices for years. Most systems, if left untreated for any length of time will start to develop dirt (or black sludge/magnetite) in the pipes and radiators. This is a thick, black substance that is produced when air, water and metal come into contact. Many people will recognise this if they've ever bled a radiator and had black water come out. The problems that come with a build up of magnetite in a central heating system are many and include;

1) Cold spots on radiators or even complete blockages

2) Failure of vital components such as pumps, diverter valves and heat exchangers etc.

3) Leaks occurring where corrosion is particularly bad.

4) Hydrogen build up in the system, meaning radiators need continual bleeding

5) Reduced heating efficiency

6) Increased gas bills

There are a number of simple yet effective processes that can be performed to help maintain system health and even revive old, dirty systems.The first and probably best known of these processes is called Powerflushing. This involves introducing an external pump to the system and adding chemicals to breakdown any sludge/magantite in the pipes and radiators. The sludge/magnetite is then flushed from the system and fresh water added with an inhibiting chemical to try to maintain the newly introduced water. I have recently been using a new Powerflushing type process developed by Adey Professional heating Solutions. The system is called a Magna-Cleanse and involves flushing the system through 2 powerful magnets whilst agitating the radiators with a specially designed tool. This results in a much quicker, less messy flush, with on going system protection with the installation of one of Adey's Magnaclean filters. I can be seen using this process in the video below;

video link coming soon

The second process/solution is to add a system filter to try to trap any magnetite and make it easily removable. I usually use Powerflushing and a system filter as one complete solution on dirty, old systems whereas a system filter can be used to help maintain a freshly filled/cleaner system. Click on the videos below to see how a magnetic filter can help to keep your heating system free of magnetite;

All boiler manufacturers now require newly installed boilers to have a system inhibitor added as standard. If a boiler is to be installed on an existing system, the boiler manufacturers will require a cleansing chemical to be added to the system, circulated for a period and then removed before adding the inhibitor. This is to try to guarantee the new boiler is not going to be subjected to any contamination on initial turn on. Failure to follow manufacturers specific requirements can lead to invalidated boiler warranties and ultimately, early component failure and unreliable appliances.

If you are having trouble with your central heating system not performing as well as it once did, or just being noisy and unreliable maybe it's time to look at giving it a bit of TLC!

For any more information or just some advice don't hesitate to contact me on 07880 435811