Removing ironoxide from rads

irishguy

A couple of rads are not heating properly I was thinking of cleaning them out with Fernox. Anyone know which one I should get F3 or F5?

http://www.fernox.com/products/water+treatment+chemicals

I assume its just a matter of draining down the system, filling it with Fernox leaving the heating on for a couple of hours then draining right?

Or one of these be any good?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MagnaClean-Professional-Magnetic-Filter-22mm/dp/B003BNL8Z4/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1313091596&sr=8-11

Buford T Justice

Fernox will need to be left in for a few weeks to have the desired effect. If you need it done in a hurry, you can have it powerflushed.

irishguy

Buford T Justice wrote: »

Fernox will need to be left in for a few weeks to have the desired effect. If you need it done in a hurry, you can have it powerflushed.

No major rush. Would leaving it in for a couple of weeks not crode the system? Its about 10 years old with plastic/copper piping.

Sparkpea

fernox bottle will tell you how long to leave it in, I think f3 cleaner is 7 days, if you go for sentinel x400 sludge remover you can leave it in for 3-4wks (again tells you on the bottle).

powerflushing is definitely much better of a job though

JohnnieK

irishguy wrote: »

No major rush. Would leaving it in for a couple of weeks not crode the system? Its about 10 years old with plastic/copper piping.

You will also need to have the system on while you have it in. It works best at operational temperatures.

youtheman

I fitted one of those MagnaClean units, exactly as shown on the link. That one is a dual unit, a magnet to catch metallic particles and a gauze to catch non metallic particles. I was amazed the amount of magnetic particles that it caught in my system. Can't be doing the heating system any good.

The guy in the shop told me they were 'all the rage'. So I'm delighted with mine. I know in my line of work that if you are pumping fluid around a circuit through a heat exchanger and various actuated valves then a filter is always fitted. Common sense to my way of thinking anyway.

irishguy

youtheman wrote: »

I fitted one of those MagnaClean units, exactly as shown on the link. That one is a dual unit, a magnet to catch metallic particles and a gauze to catch non metallic particles. I was amazed the amount of magnetic particles that it caught in my system. Can't be doing the heating system any good.

The guy in the shop told me they were 'all the rage'. So I'm delighted with mine. I know in my line of work that if you are pumping fluid around a circuit through a heat exchanger and various actuated valves then a filter is always fitted. Common sense to my way of thinking anyway.

Did you do it yourself? Was it complicated ?

youtheman

Got a plumber to fit it. It comes complete with isolation valves, a spanner for opening it and a spare o-ring seal.

It will have to be fitted close to your boiler, I think mine is on the return line, but it will have to be after the various connections for your zone areas (if you have them) so that it filters the combined streams. So a few elbows might have to be fitted to the pipework to get it in the system.

The isolation valves allow you to open the bowl without having to drain down the complete system. It comes with a nice dish for catching the contents of the bowl.

Bog standard for a competent plumber, I'd say an hours work max. It continues to catch the crap in my system, so I reckon it's easily worth the money.

Micky Dolenz

I find those cleansers you leave in for a few weeks rubbish. If the system isn't too badly contaminated they might work but people won't use them until it's too late.

My advise, if you can't afford a power flush, which is by far the best job, I would do the following:

Turn off valves either side of affected rads, then disconnect and bring outside and empty. Using a garden hose, clean them out and flush them a few times. Reconnect rads and then add cleanser for a few weeks and dump, refill, bring up to temp and dump again. Then add inhibitor.

If you can't get rid of the heavy stuff you are wasting your time and money.

Sparkpea

when taking them outside to clean turn them upside down filled with water, shake them, put them on their side and flush, shake again, put it upright and flush, if u have a rubber hammer tap it while flushing, the more times u turn it and shake etc the more u will prob get out

youtheman

I've previously removed individual radiators and taken outside for a flush with the garden hose. Only other advice I would offer is to avoid dripping the contents of the radiator on the carpet; its the nearest think to indelible black dye you'll see around.

druidhill

youtheman wrote: »

I fitted one of those MagnaClean units, exactly as shown on the link. That one is a dual unit, a magnet to catch metallic particles and a gauze to catch non metallic particles. I was amazed the amount of magnetic particles that it caught in my system. Can't be doing the heating system any good.

The guy in the shop told me they were 'all the rage'. So I'm delighted with mine. I know in my line of work that if you are pumping fluid around a circuit through a heat exchanger and various actuated valves then a filter is always fitted. Common sense to my way of thinking anyway.

Can you remember the cost of the unit, and was it the newer metal MagnaClean, as mentioned in this amazon review:

<snip>Having had a new boiler fitted by British Gas just over a year ago, I was surprised to find that this component was the source of a leak. British Gas attended and initially tighted the fitting on the black plastic MagnaClean filter. However, they quickly found that, being made of plastic, the thread failed. The BG engineer commented that this has been a problem before and they have had systems where the fitting is tightened so much that it fails completely, causing water at system pressure to flood out. They subsequently fitted a new black plastic MagnaClean and tightened it extra-tight, only to find the thread not responding as surely as they'd hoped.
It's now BG policy to fit the newer *metal* MagnaClean, which is what BG resolved to do. It's so much better constructed than the plastic one, which is inherently weak by design.</snip>

Thanks.

youtheman

Cost 110 euros about two months ago. The isolation valves are metal but the bowl is plastic. Any one with an ounce of 'cop on' would realise that you only need to put moderate torque on it when tightening the bowl (a little over 'hand tight').

The unit comes with two special elbow fittings, one end to connect to the isolation valve, and the other end has a solder connection for the existing pipework.

Sparkpea

fernox also do a tf1 which is a filter like the magnaclean

http://www.fernox.com/equipment/filters/total+filter+tf1