Central heating issue - potentially sludge in rads

michaelduignan

Hi just purchased a second hand house. There is an oil burner central heating system and also a stove connected to back boiler option.

The house has 10 radiators (~15years+ old). Five of these radiators are cold at the bottom while hot at the top. I believe this is sludge build up from reading online. I am a complete novice here so would appreciate any helpful advice.

All radiators except one are single panel convector ones. No radiators have TRVs fitted.

I am wondering what is the best option for me here?

(1) replace all radiators giving trouble with modern double panel ones (in the large rooms anyway). I'm assuming this would make the heating more efficient.
(2) Take off each radiator one by one and try to blow out the sludge using a hose
(3) Add some sort of chemical to the system to clean the sludge for me? Or is this option only for preventing sludge build up? do I just add this to the tank in the attic?
(4) Hire a company in do the de-sludge work in a day?

michaelduignan

michaelduignan wrote: »

Hi just purchased a second hand house. There is an oil burner central heating system and also a stove connected to back boiler option.

The house has 10 radiators (~15years+ old). Five of these radiators are cold at the bottom while hot at the top. I believe this is sludge build up from reading online. I am a complete novice here so would appreciate any helpful advice.

All radiators except one are single panel convector ones. No radiators have TRVs fitted.

I am wondering what is the best option for me here?

(1) replace all radiators giving trouble with modern double panel ones (in the large rooms anyway). I'm assuming this would make the heating more efficient.
(2) Take off each radiator one by one and try to blow out the sludge using a hose
(3) Add some sort of chemical to the system to clean the sludge for me? Or is this option only for preventing sludge build up? do I just add this to the tank in the attic?
(4) Hire a company in do the de-sludge work in a day?

If it were me I’d put a cleaning chemical in and leave it for a few days to help breakdown the sludge, following that I’d Powerflush the system and fit a magnetic filter which would allow me to monitor the system water quality, only then would I look to replace rads if I wasn’t happy. I would advise you to get somebody who understands how to flush properly to get the best results.

michaelduignan

gary71 wrote: »

If it were me I’d put a cleaning chemical in and leave it for a few days to help breakdown the sludge, following that I’d Powerflush the system and fit a magnetic filter which would allow me to monitor the system water quality, only then would I look to replace rads if I wasn’t happy. I would advise you to get somebody who understands how to flush properly to get the best results.

Thanks for the advice. What kind of price are we talking for this? New rads would be ~1000 euro. So i would hope this would be considerably cheaper?

michaelduignan

michaelduignan wrote: »

Thanks for the advice. What kind of price are we talking for this? New rads would be ~1000 euro. So i would hope this would be considerably cheaper?

New rads are not really any good to you without removing the sludge from the system that caused the problem.

The charges seem to vary from €450-€750 depending on the work involved.

mrsdoylesteapot

Hi there,

I have a similar problem. I have a 5 year old oil boiler, a mixture of gun barrel, PVC and copper piping to 10 metal rads. The rads are full of sludge and only the top 20% of the rads are working. I'm told a power flush would dissolve the pipes and there's no way of fixing the rads, without replacing the gun barrel.

Do I need to replace the gun barrel to fix the problem? Is this typically a big job to do so?

Thanks in advance.

OwenM

mrsdoylesteapot wrote: »

Hi there,

I have a similar problem. I have a 5 year old oil boiler, a mixture of gun barrel, PVC and copper piping to 10 metal rads. The rads are full of sludge and only the top 20% of the rads are working. I'm told a power flush would dissolve the pipes and there's no way of fixing the rads, without replacing the gun barrel.

Do I need to replace the gun barrel to fix the problem? Is this typically a big job to do so?

Thanks in advance.

Gun barrel will need to be replaced, flushing a system introduces more air and hence more corrosion. It rusts from the inside out so even if you get the system back working now after a flush the danger is the pipes will fail - (fall apart) and you come home some random day to find the ceilings have collapsed and your house flooded.

Wearb

OwenM wrote: »

Gun barrel will need to be replaced, flushing a system introduces more air and hence more corrosion. It rusts from the inside out so even if you get the system back working now after a flush the danger is the pipes will fail - (fall apart) and you come home some random day to find the ceilings have collapsed and your house flooded.

Is that not why (to prevent corrosion) inhibitor is added to the system after a power flush?

listermint

OwenM wrote: »

Gun barrel will need to be replaced, flushing a system introduces more air and hence more corrosion. It rusts from the inside out so even if you get the system back working now after a flush the danger is the pipes will fail - (fall apart) and you come home some random day to find the ceilings have collapsed and your house flooded.

Why would the gun barrel need replacing if its not degraded ?

Ive gun barrel in mine and its there 40 years. Opened it up recently to move a rad, and its nice and black metal inside. No rust nothing like it.

Gun barrel will degrade if there is air in the system. Inhibiter removes this and a system that just cycles in its own water will last decades.

Dont rush to advise people to tear out there entire systems at massive costs without qualifying the condition of their pipework.

mrsdoylesteapot

Thanks all. I'm not sure if it's relevant but we've tried bleeding the rads to no effect. The house was built in the 70's, so I guess there's a danger of degradation. Though obviously I'd prefer not to deal with a 10k replacement job right away.

Dtp1979

OwenM wrote: »

Gun barrel will need to be replaced, flushing a system introduces more air and hence more corrosion. It rusts from the inside out so even if you get the system back working now after a flush the danger is the pipes will fail - (fall apart) and you come home some random day to find the ceilings have collapsed and your house flooded.

What

The

Fcuk.

Less of the scaremongering and misinformation. I don’t even know where to start

Power flushing doesn’t cause a issue but it can uncover problems already there that were hidden by the sludge.

mrsdoylesteapot

mrsdoylesteapot wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm not sure if it's relevant but we've tried bleeding the rads to no effect. The house was built in the 70's, so I guess there's a danger of degradation. Though obviously I'd prefer not to deal with a 10k replacement job right away.

If the rads are working why not leave it till summer before looking in to things to give you a bit of wiggle room.