Need a power flush...very expensive!

ruby77

I live in central Scotland. Have a potterton boiler and Boilermate thermal store. Have probs with boiler locking out all the time. Have british gas homecare100 cover. They keep saying we need a powerflush at £592 which seems enormous. We have already done a diy chemical flush with cleanser and inhibitor from b&q and it seemed to stop the noises mostly but not the locking out so much.
We have kettling noises (which we've heard can't be fixed with chemical flush.) BG will give lifetime guarantee on powerflush if we stay with them and they will change heat exchanger afterwards if neccesary which isn't covered at the mo with hc100.
a, can we get a lifetime guarantee with anyone else doing powerflush?
b, can we get it cheaper?
Also, the whole estate of houses built nearly 7 years ago have the same problems, and bg man unofficially said the problem started with the installer not cleaning the system when it was put in.
Eeeek.We don't have £600 hanging around spare. (who does?)
Ruby77

bazza1603

Hi,

We paid a local company £450 including pump and diverter valve 12 months ago from a local Corgi firm. Took from 0900-1500

Regards

Barry

KAB_3

Same system here (Suprima 50 boiler) on a 1999 house. The circuit boards on the Potterton's from that era are notorious for overheating leading to bad solder joints and constant tripping out. Replacing the boiler circuit board if you don't have the latest version is a start. Not sure about your 'kettling' noises though. Searching Google will reveal much more from people far more qualified than myself. Good luck.

Canucklehead

Hi

I think you need to do a little research on your Boilermate.Here's a start... http://www.boilermate-repairs.co.uk/


Corgi Guy.

wildmandy

I suspect the stuff you got from B&Q wasn't quite the correct treatment. Get your self a litre of Sentinel X400 and leave it in for a month. Directions are on the bottle or do a google for sludge removal. 99% of the time you do not need a power flush.

Mandy

ruby77

I have already researched the boilermate. I think I know how it works better than the bg engineers! Also we have referred to gledhill who make the boilermate and had an electrical engineer check the boilermate and it's working perfectly. It is not receiving the correct temperature from the boiler. The bg man agrees that it's not sending out the high enough temperature. They are saying that the return is hotter than the flow. They say the pipes are clogged, and now that they've decided it's water quality that's wrong with the system they won't fix anything for free that they deem to be due to water quality issues. So if the fan breaks that's fine.
Also, they have been contracted by us to look after and service our system for more than 2 and a half years and they've only picked up on this now. They know that the whole estate has the same problems as us, apparently, and they didn't warn us about it 2 and a half years ago.
It was sentinel that i used, that I got from b&q.
Also bg have changed the circuit board and everything else electrical wise in the boiler already.
So we are stuck in a corner.
Ruby77

Moneymaker

I know nothing about plumbing so this may be a stupid question, but here goes:

Maybe it would be possible to hire the power flush equipment for significantly less than you've been quoted for the work? I've hired tools and often saved money this way.

withabix

My suspicion with the British Gas Powerflush price of £592 is that it's £92 for the job and £500 commission for the British Gas Salesmen.....sorry 'Engineers' that tell you that you need it doing!

andyhop

withabix wrote: »

My suspicion with the British Gas Powerflush price of £592 is that it's £92 for the job and £500 commission for the British Gas Salesmen.....sorry 'Engineers' that tell you that you need it doing!

powerflush takes around 4-6 hours

chemicals depending on brand are around 50 for a average house

machines range for 600 for a basic rothenberger to over 1200 for the latest kamco

yes you can hire them but unless you have the skills you will probably make it worse

withabix

OK so only about £400 profit per job then...

safesound

I power flushed my central heating system while ago. Its not hard so long as you are a competent DIYer and can read and follow instructions. My system went from coke colored water to tap water clear, okay it took the best part of a day (6-8hours) but it was well worth the £80 hire fee and the £50 chemicals (actually a bit more because I'm an idiot and I put the inhibitor in before I refilled the system and the pump was leaking from one side, so I had to re-drain and refill with new inhibitor added)
Best of all my heating works again! I spent last winter freezing because my system was so sludged up it wasn't getting any hot water to the radiators (hot water was fine) this year I'm going to be toasty warm :)