Inhibitor for central heating when removing a radiator

helping_hubby

Hello,

I'm sure someone told me to put inhibitor back in the system when we took a radiator off.

Anyway, I forgot when we did the 2 radiators in the living room. But someone reminded us when we removed another rad recently. It's not gone back on yet.

I vaguely remember someone saying use the same inhibitor, but we don't know which one was used. Does it really matter?

Also we have a combi boiler, as far as I'm aware the cold water tank is not connected anymore. So where do we put the inhibitor into?

Would appreciate some advice as I'm off to B&Q at lunch to buy it.

Canucklehead

Good morning: I recall that you have a recently installed combi...the inhibitor used by your RGI should be written in your Benchmark Installation/Service log. The OH uses Sentinel X100.....the manufacturer does not recommend mixing it with other inhibitors. Check your boiler manufacturer's warranty to see if mixing chemicals will impact on your warranty.

HTH

Canucklehead

craig777

helping_hubby wrote: »

I'm off to B&Q at lunch to buy it.

B&Q have Sentinel X100 on offer at the moment, £11 a bottle if memory serves me. Won't do any harm to get some X400 while you're there, if you haven't run any cleaner through the system for a while.

Easiest way to add it is via the top of a towel radiator if you have one. You'll obvioiusly need to drain out a bit of water from the system first to make room for the inhibitor.

craig777

(I'm presuming you already know how to drain and refill your system.)

helping_hubby

Yes, we have a towel radiator.

The system has already been flushed twice in 5 months. Once when we had the boiler installed and 2 new rads 5 months ago and just in December when we had the bathroom done.

The_Governor

craig777 wrote: »

B&Q have Sentinel X100 on offer at the moment, £11 a bottle if memory serves me. Won't do any harm to get some X400 while you're there, if you haven't run any cleaner through the system for a while.

Easiest way to add it is via the top of a towel radiator if you have one. You'll obvioiusly need to drain out a bit of water from the system first to make room for the inhibitor.

I'm after some inihibitor, ta for the tip.

Just one thing, on most treatments it states an "effective for xxx litre system" is there a method for calculating how many litres the system has? Or is it guesswork

craig777

How big is your house/heating system?

If you've got a 'normal' sized house with up to 10 radiators, adding a litre of X100 will be fine.

If you live in a 10-bed mansion, you might want to add 2 or 3 litres!!

helping_hubby

So how much do you add just for topping up? I assume it says on the tin.

The_Governor

craig777 wrote: »

How big is your house/heating system?

If you've got a 'normal' sized house with up to 10 radiators, adding a litre of X100 will be fine.

If you live in a 10-bed mansion, you might want to add 2 or 3 litres!!

We've got 17 rads, it's a reasonably sized five bed house, so by the sound of it two litres should do it?

craig777

If you don't know what was in the system to begin with, I'd be inclined to drain all the water out of the system, add the X100 and refill with water. At least that way you know what inhibitor has gone in and how much has gone in. The X100 bottle has a sticky label on the side that you can write a date on then stick it to your boiler so you know what and when the system was last treated with.

craig777

The_Governor wrote: »

We've got 17 rads, it's a reasonably sized five bed house, so by the sound of it two litres should do it?

Yep, sounds like a two litre job to me!

I wouldn't want to be the person that has the job of bleeding your system!