What colour water supposed to be when treated with Sentinel X100 inhibitor?

THERAPHOSA

Hi,

A month ago the gas safe engineer has power flushed my central heating sysytem and installed a new boiler. He also said that he put Sentinel X100 to protect the system. Recently I have checked the water and it was dark brown (rusty) colour. The Sentinel staff advised that the inhibitor itself is colourless to pale yellow colour, therefore water should not get dark brown, but when I used they quick test kit to establish the level of inhibitor in the system it came out positive. I am really confused. Does anyone have any advise? Thank you all in advance.

maninthestreet

Any existing rust in the system will still colour the water - the inhibitor stops any furhter rusting.

THERAPHOSA

Thank you for your reply Maninthestreet. I should mention that previously I have emptied the system water couple times and it always was only bage colour. I have never seen this dark colour before and therefore think that the engineer might has not put any inhibitor...

WobblyDog

I'm not an expert, but I reckon my central heating system contains various piles of brown sludge that might get stirred up depending on how much the pump is running.

I'd expect the water in my system to be rusty brown, unless perhaps it had been agressively power-flushed.

southcoastrgi

powerflushing is never going to completely clean your system, sludge collects in the bottom of rads & becomes like mud, think of a river bed the water is normally clear however stir the bottom & the water gets murky, the chemicals used in powerflushing starts to break down this sludge & depending how long it was done for & how long it had clean water flushed through the system, there could still be cleaning chemicals left in the system therefore the sludge will still be being dislodged, which is why the water is that colour, correct powerflushing is not easy to do & takes time, some badly sludged systems have taken me 8 hrs to get clean but even then the system wasn't 100% clean.

roger196

Would suggest draining your system , refill and add sentinel X400. Run CH for a week then drain and refill and add X100. Would also install a sentinel system filter to catch remaining sludge. www.bes.co.uk part number 18579 and 7582.

THERAPHOSA

Thank you Southcoastrgi, I guess your explanation makes sence.