Possible gas boiler replacement

sniper66

Thank you.

Well, comitted to British Gas now, but that course was recommended by our Gas Safe recommended by neighbour man. He did say though that BG will cost an arm and a leg for a new boiler install.

Seems that Gas Safe are more slanted to installers than repairers.

Ho hum.

Well;, fingers strill crossed.

sniper66

Well British Gas found the pump had gone, and also there was some blockage in the pipes. All sorted now.

But apparantly we 'will' have problems and he recommends the BG 'powerflush' for £599!

Gulp!!!

Thanks to everyone for their help on this.

Very much appreciated.

S

Cardew

sniper66 wrote: »

Well British Gas found the pump had gone, and also there was some blockage in the pipes. All sorted now.

But apparantly we 'will' have problems and he recommends the BG 'powerflush' for £599!

Gulp!!!

Thanks to everyone for their help on this.

Very much appreciated.

S

They always recommend a 'power flush'.

Although not as good as the professional job, you can DIY to get rid a lot of the muck from radiators.

DataMiner

Cardew wrote: »

They always recommend a 'power flush'.

Although not as good as the professional job, you can DIY to get rid a lot of the muck from radiators.

Power flushing is nothing more than a money making ploy by the heating industry. A small bore domestic heating system should never need such a thing.

Other than when you're having a new boiler installed, if told your system NEEDS a power flush, politely decline and never use that heating engineer or firm again.

DM

ziggyman99

sniper66 wrote: »

Well British Gas found the pump had gone, and also there was some blockage in the pipes. All sorted now.

But apparantly we 'will' have problems and he recommends the BG 'powerflush' for £599!

Gulp!!!

Thanks to everyone for their help on this.

Very much appreciated.

S

Told you so!

ziggyman99

DataMiner wrote: »

Power flushing is nothing more than a money making ploy by the heating industry. A small bore domestic heating system should never need such a thing.

Other than when you're having a new boiler installed, if told your system NEEDS a power flush, politely decline and never use that heating engineer or firm again.

DM

Here we go again. The armchair expert.

jalexa

ziggyman99 wrote: »

Here we go again. The armchair expert.

You or the poster?

Why is that that all these maintainer diagnoses are always that a power flush is needed, never that a reason why a power flush might be needed is that the system maintainer has negligently failed to dose with inhibitor?

Or that a better mitigation might be to install a Magnaclean, something I think an independent could do for the BG power flush price but would carry on working every day for free?

MillicentBystander

£599 for a power flush???? I hope you said no!!! again, this comes down to economics - it's a bit like taking out an insurance policy on a £2,000 TV and them asking you for £599 to cover it. What would you say? No, of course. The difference here is (even worse) the £599 will not insure your boil;er for any length of time at all. tell them to get stuffed and if you must get a Magnaclean installed (you shouldn't pay more than £200 for supply and fit on this). When your boiler does eventually go, at least the Magnaclean can be re-used.

Pincher

I think the Magnaclean is overrated. It needs removing for cleaning, whereas the TF1 simply flushes out the gunk. The only problem is TF1 requires more clearance around it to do the cleaning process, whereas the Magnaclean is more compact. For the typical wall cabinet mount combi, the TF1 is probably best mounted under the cabinet, and above the worktop, which makes it easy to access, but an eyesore. So I'm not going to push the TF1, but where clearance and aesthetics does not matter, I would go for a TF1.

My plumber is now a fan of the TF1, after I made him put it in for me.

SYNERGY

Pincher wrote: »

I think the Magnaclean is overrated. It needs removing for cleaning, whereas the TF1 simply flushes out the gunk. The only problem is TF1 requires more clearance around it to do the cleaning process, whereas the Magnaclean is more compact. For the typical wall cabinet mount combi, the TF1 is probably best mounted under the cabinet, and above the worktop, which makes it easy to access, but an eyesore. So I'm not going to push the TF1, but where clearance and aesthetics does not matter, I would go for a TF1.

My plumber is now a fan of the TF1, after I made him put it in for me.

My system is approx 25+ years old, it was a backboiler open system, always filled with inhibitor ( checked and replenished every year if required ), when the boiler died, approx. 6 years ago I fitted a condensing boiler with the obvious change from an open to a sealed system.

There was a little debris / magnetite etc when I flushed the system, prior to fitting the boiler, but after modifying the pipework.

Likewise after fitting the boiler and going through the cold / hot / flushing sequence with a flushing compound a little more rubbish was produced, so I decided to fit a Magnaclean.

It works OK, appears to collect magnetite as it says it does.

However I found several problems over the years, depending where it is fitted it can be a pain to strip down and a bit of faffing about to clean, the valves can leak, the valve handles can break, the top can leak.

Earlier this year I re-routed some pipework, the water came out quite clean, I did a quick hot flush then decided to take the opportunity to change the Magnaclean for something else before adding the inhibitor.

I did some research, picked some brains looked at the TF1 and decided to fit a Spirotrap MB2.

It does what it says on the packet, is compact and simplicity itself to flush, no need to close and open any isolating valves as per Magnaclean and TF1.

A few things convinced me, it's all brass, the ability to fit it to pipes from horizontal to vertical, and anywhere in between, most of all it is guaranteed for 20 years.

Just to say I have been retired 7 years and am nothing at all to do with any of the products or companies mentioned, the opinions are mine alone.

As to fitting, all three are easy to fit.

The prices are also similar, from approx. £120 to £80 each if you shop around.

If you have any of these filters, a couple of things to remember:

1) Let the system cool down before you attack the filter.

2) Check the system pressure and re-pressurise after cleaning the filter.

3) Check the inhibitor concentration and add more if required every year at boiler servicing time.

Hope this helps.