British Gas & Power Flush

rdg9795753

Is it a potterton suprema 40? if so these are well known for the reset problem. It's not a sludge problem its electrical. We had same problem and never managed to sort it. kept recurring.

clearbrook

For £750 you could buy the machine to do it yourself. Thats a rip off. It should be about £200. Or you can hire the machines from most rental places for £70 a day.
Sometimes just draining down the system and filling it up can dislodge a lot of sludge. A good thing to do is add a magnetic filter such as a Magnaclean or Fernox TF1, they take out the "sludge" or magnatite continuously and can be useful dosing points to maintain the levels of inhibitor in the system (this can be done with a testing kit).
But a radiator that is needing to be bled a lot might be different to sluding up as the insides of a radiator can rust if there is air in the system this will then form Hydrogen as a by product. No flushing will stop the fact that you need a new radiator. Usually much cheaper than a power flush depending on the size of the radiator (a small rad could be as little as £30).
The main thing is to have enough inhibitor in your system and if you can splash out on the branded ones as they are a bit better for only a few quid more.

heating-eng

rdg9795753 wrote: »

Was told by a BG engineer that my system was bolcked and it needed a powerflush @ £680.

Had a local plumber to have a look, he laughed and called it a rip off. Sorted my heating system out after BG had left it not working for 3 days (with 2 children in the house). The cost £20.

Now works better than it ever has.

Dont mind paying a fair price, but dont rip me off.

To get the job done correctly you should be looking at around £250
The chemicals will cost around £50 -£70 then there is the hire of the machine.
Hope this helps

ollski

heating-eng wrote: »

To get the job done correctly you should be looking at around £250
The chemicals will cost around £50 -£70 then there is the hire of the machine.
Hope this helps

It's misleading though. If you have a typical worcester highflow 400 which is locking out due to sludge then to do the job correctly you would also be looking at a coupl of hundred in a replacement plated heat exchanger, manifolds and iso valves as a minimum, to cover your bases a new tank aswell as this will be full of muck. A couple of days labour, 500 quid in parts, chemicals and flush hire.
Can possibly give a guide with a boiler model and number of radiators, but not without.

Haryer

I moved away from British Gas about 4 years ago because of their lousy customer service. Theyve just rang me to try and get me back on board, apparently they have a special offer but I couldnt understand most of it. Do they have call centres in India? Just having a rant Wouldnt touch them with a barge pole.

heating-eng

GasPlumberEssex wrote: »

To make sure you don't get ripped of when you need a power flush, just use one of the approved members of the Powerflush Association. I am a member and if my clients are not happy with my work they can submit a complaint to them.

I am also a member.

Sarahwilltry

Good to know we have professionals giving us advise. :T

sudo909

Just a note of caution from my BG powerflush experience:

I opted for a BG powerflush over using a cheaper local option as BG engineer and callcenter both told me they give a lifetime guarantee. Most other companies vary from 2-7years guarantee for any powerflush equivalent.

That was just over 2 years ago and now i have a number of cold radiators and what i assume to be a blocked valve/pump (the CH heats up now when the hot water is switched on and also turning anything off has a 10-15min delay before the system actually stops).

After contacting BG they informed me that the guarantee is invalid since I am no longer a homecare customer. This was not stated by the engineer or the callcenter at the time of sale and i was given no documentation at the time other than a BG form from the Powerflush engineer.

Missold?

sparkster1

Now this has been an interesting read.

But unlike most on here i'm actually now wanting the powerflush/extras from BG but with a few concerns about it that i hope someone can help ease my mind with.

My story is, on Saturday last noticed a problem with our 5year old, vokera sabre combi boiler, pressure rising upto 3 bar and then leaking through pressure blow off pipe outside.
So rings BG (have homecare 400) and they send someone out Monday in my alloted time.
Engineer gets to work and wihthin 10-15 minutes calls me to look at a blocked pipe he was rinsing out in the sink, now don't get me wrong this wasn't tar, thick, black looking stuff or anything, it was more like small bits floating around in the water and a little cloudy. Engineer recommends/quotation powerflush at £409, he also gives me a recommendation/quote for magna filter and pressure reducing valve at £300 or all 3 jobs done for £709 and the fault (which i think is heat exchanger again) causing the pressure build up will then be covered by my homecare agreement.
At the time thought it was extreme and wanted to cancel agreement, scream and shout but after a little reading and looking into things £709 isn't seeming that bad for the powerflush(with lifetime guarantee), magna filter fitted, pressure reducing valve, fault being fixed and anyother fault which occurs in my boiler for the life of my agreement.

My concerns are,

firstly all my radiators work fine with no cold spots and everything else is working, hot water, heating albeit pressure goes up alot quicker when this is on and no banging/funny noises from boiler.
But when i'm reading around this is one of the main reasons to see whether a powerflush is needed when some of the above aren't.

Secondly, theres upto 4 weeks wait for a flush so should BG fix my boiler in the meantime while waiting for the flush, i'm also getting fed up with depressurising it 4-5 times a day.

And thirdly, i've noticed a rust spot on one of the radiator bottom corners which could have been a previous pin head leek, should i have this replaced before flush?

Appreciate any help/info. on the matters or anything else you may find useful.

heating-eng

sparkster1 wrote: »

Now this has been an interesting read.

But unlike most on here i'm actually now wanting the powerflush/extras from BG but with a few concerns about it that i hope someone can help ease my mind with.

My story is, on Saturday last noticed a problem with our 5year old, vokera sabre combi boiler, pressure rising upto 3 bar and then leaking through pressure blow off pipe outside.
So rings BG (have homecare 400) and they send someone out Monday in my alloted time.
Engineer gets to work and wihthin 10-15 minutes calls me to look at a blocked pipe he was rinsing out in the sink, now don't get me wrong this wasn't tar, thick, black looking stuff or anything, it was more like small bits floating around in the water and a little cloudy. Engineer recommends/quotation powerflush at £409, he also gives me a recommendation/quote for magna filter and pressure reducing valve at £300 or all 3 jobs done for £709 and the fault (which i think is heat exchanger again) causing the pressure build up will then be covered by my homecare agreement.
At the time thought it was extreme and wanted to cancel agreement, scream and shout but after a little reading and looking into things £709 isn't seeming that bad for the powerflush(with lifetime guarantee), magna filter fitted, pressure reducing valve, fault being fixed and anyother fault which occurs in my boiler for the life of my agreement.

My concerns are,

firstly all my radiators work fine with no cold spots and everything else is working, hot water, heating albeit pressure goes up alot quicker when this is on and no banging/funny noises from boiler.
But when i'm reading around this is one of the main reasons to see whether a powerflush is needed when some of the above aren't.

Secondly, theres upto 4 weeks wait for a flush so should BG fix my boiler in the meantime while waiting for the flush, i'm also getting fed up with depressurising it 4-5 times a day.

And thirdly, i've noticed a rust spot on one of the radiator bottom corners which could have been a previous pin head leek, should i have this replaced before flush?

Appreciate any help/info. on the matters or anything else you may find useful.

Sounds like it needs a new water to water heat exchanger to me and if all your rads are ok then a powerflush should also not be needed.
I went to a job this week and the customer had been told by BG it needing flushing and when i looked in the system it was very clean.
The life time thing is only if you pay them £250 plus per year to stay on contract.
If i was you i would save your money each month and then if you have problems you can afford to pay for it mending.