Boiler Anti-Corrosion

matty_c608

Hi Guys,

So we had some guy come and do some decorating for us. He decided to take a radiator off (and drain the water in it) so he could decorate behind it.

He did it fine, except the Anti Corrosion stuff that they put in when the boiler was first installed is now probably diluted and non effective.

• Can anyone here offer any guidance on how to top up the boiler and get some stuff back in the system please? It can't be that complicated, or can it?
• What stuff would we put back in, I think there's different types of it you see..
• Would it be better to drain the system entirely, and fill it back up again with a fresh lot?

Responses would be most welcome.

Cheers!
Matt.

EDIT: It's called an inhibitor isn't it? Not stuff

DVardysShadow

matty_c608 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

So we had some guy come and do some decorating for us. He decided to take a radiator off (and drain the water in it) so he could decorate behind it.

He did it fine, except the Anti Corrosion stuff that they put in when the boiler was first installed is now probably diluted and non effective.

• Can anyone here offer any guidance on how to top up the boiler and get some stuff back in the system please? It can't be that complicated, or can it?
• What stuff would we put back in, I think there's different types of it you see..
• Would it be better to drain the system entirely, and fill it back up again with a fresh lot?

Responses would be most welcome.

Cheers!
Matt.

EDIT: It's called an inhibitor isn't it? Not stuff

Did he just drain the one rad or the whole system? If it was just the rad, I wouldn't worry for the moment.

As you don't know what stuff was used, you need to contact the installer unless he left a label near your boiler or somewhere. If you can't find out, then leave it to the late spring, drain the whole lot down and use fernox - you need to check their web site to get the exact product for your system and how to do it. Their instructions are usually reasonably comprehensive.

There are other products of course.

matty_c608

That was great. Thank you!

I will get in touch with him and see what he did.

I know what stuff was put in actually, I have maybe 20ml left of the bottle. I will check the name of it in a minute, Sentinel X100 if I remember correctly.

Is it good to 'drain' it occasionally anyway? And why wait til Spring?

Cheers mate!
Matt.

EDIT: Are you a plumber yourself sir? Would you recommend a different inhibitor?

keystone

Theres actually a peel off sticky label on each bottle of the stuff (no you are right its called inhibitor) which the installer should remove and afix near or on the boiler and theres a space to enscribe the date.

Sentinel X100 is a good product (the Fernox one is called F1) and they are both about the same retail price and just as good as one another.

A 1 litre bottle of either will treat an ordinary sized system. If you have some left over from the previous treatment it won't do any harm to just add that now and that will compensate for any that was lost when the rad was drained. You can put it in the F&E tank in the roof if you have one or alternatively introduce it via a radiator which is better as it gets straight to work.

Normally a system should be treated every 3 years or so by adding X400, giving it a 3 - 4 weeks to do its stuff then drain and flush out with fresh water before adding another dose of X100.

Why leave it untl the spring? Well if you do it now and get a load of airlocks when refilling (whats your system BTW? Is it sealed or open vented?) then you could end up not having any heating when you want it - like now. Its a matter of practicality more than anything.

Cheers

DVardysShadow

matty_c608 wrote: »

Is it good to 'drain' it occasionally anyway? And why wait til Spring?
...
EDIT: Are you a plumber yourself sir? Would you recommend a different inhibitor?

keystone has answered for why wait. On my systems, I have ended up having to drain for one reason or another every few years, but with a good inhibitor there is no 'bad' to drain away. The one thing which happens is that the system may gradually leak and the inhibitor become diluted. Fernox suggest putting 2 bright new nails in a sealed jar with some drain off from the system and seeing that they don't rust - stand that jar against a similar jar with tap water and you will understand.

No I am not a plumber as in profession, but I do my own plumbing and heating. I recommend fernox because that is all I use, but I am aware that my knowledge is not always up to date, so I left it open for others to suggest without having a religious war over corrosion inhibitor.

HTH

matty_c608

Great responses, thank you )

I think it is a Sealed but I cannot be sure. Any guidance on how I would say for sure?

So the X400 would clean the system out and do what ever it does? Then after a few weeks of that, drain it all, and fill it up with the new inhibitor?

Well I spoke to the man that decorated for us, and he actually didn't drain the system OR the radiator, or so he says that. He simply sealed the radiator, took it off, decorated, fitted it back on the wall, then reconnected pipes. So the radiator was not even drained, nor the system. He says only about 1/2 a bucket of water was lost from the radiator (and it was quite clean he says. I would have expected that because it is a new boiler not installed that long ago, maybe 1-2 years). Would inhibitor be necessary now?

And as for maintenance, this X400 stuff sounds quite good. Would this be something to do every 2 or 3 years do you think?

Thanks again.
Matt.

2010

I have a header tank in the loft and have just done the rusty nail test because my system was drained last summer and I assumed,wrongly,that inhibitor had been added.
I`ve purchased 1 ltr of sentinal x100 from screwfix for £14-99 and was waiting for the current cold snap to subside before adding to the system.
Advice needed if I`m wrong here please.
I was going to open a drain c0ck on the radiator in the hall,connect some rubber hose and let some of the water out,having tied back the stopc0ck in the small header tank in the loft.
Then tighten the stopc0ck on the rad,add the inhibitor to the tank and let the header fill back up.
Any comments appreciated.

2010

matty-c608

I`m not an expert, but because I was suspicious about no inhibitor being added last summer I opened a bleed valve and took some water from the rad and put a couple of new nails into it and they went rusty after a few days.

keystone

matty_c608 wrote: »

I think it is a Sealed but I cannot be sure. Any guidance on how I would say for sure?

Do you have any tanks in your roof? If you do you'll have an open vented system. The smaller one is the Feed and Expansion (F&E) tank I mentioned earlier. What is your boiler make / model? If its a combi or a system boiler then your system will be sealed and there will be no operational tanks in the roof.

So the X400 would clean the system out and do what ever it does? Then after a few weeks of that, drain it all, and fill it up with the new inhibitor?

If you've got filthy black water in your system the X400 will desludge it. If your system is only 1/2 years old then that is unlikely to be the case and you prolly won't need to do it for a while. The method in a nutshell is let the desludger do its work (typically 3 - 4 weeks but it MUST be got out before 6 arrives), then drain the system and flush it with clean water to get everything out. Then refill the system with clean water and add the X100.

Well I spoke to the man that decorated for us, and he actually didn't drain the system OR the radiator, or so he says that. He simply sealed the radiator, took it off, decorated, fitted it back on the wall, then reconnected pipes. So the radiator was not even drained, nor the system. He says only about 1/2 a bucket of water was lost from the radiator (and it was quite clean he says. I would have expected that because it is a new boiler not installed that long ago, maybe 1-2 years). Would inhibitor be necessary now?

If you mean draining it and replacing the inhibitor no I wouldn't worry about it TBH.

Would this be something to do every 2 or 3 years do you think?

For older systems - yes every 3 years.


Cheers

keystone

2010 wrote: »

I was going to open a drain c0ck on the radiator in the hall,connect some rubber hose and let some of the water out,having tied back the stopc0ck in the small header tank in the loft.
Then tighten the stopc0ck on the rad,add the inhibitor to the tank and let the header fill back up.
Any comments appreciated.

Yes you can do it that way but make sure that the water level only drops to a couple of feet below the level of the bottom of the F&E tank Then you can introduce your X100 into the pipework and refill that F&E. Then drain another 3 or 4 litres out (the X100 will not have got as far as exiting the system) and then refill again. That ensures that you get all the X100 into the system and working but also you don't get any airlocks.

Cheers

keystone

2010 wrote: »

matty-c608

I`m not an expert, but because I was suspicious about no inhibitor being added last summer I opened a bleed valve and took some water from the rad and put a couple of new nails into it and they went rusty after a few days.

You can get a monitoring kit which I use - Sentinel X100 Quick Test Kit. Around £ 2.50 depending on outlet.

Cheers