Parkray - 30 yrs old - help please

DelilahFP

Hello

We are renovating a bungalow which was built in 1980. The heating system installed was a Parkray, with 7 radiators coming off it.

The house belonged to my late parents-in-law and after a few years they decided the Parkray was too much bother so they had night storage heaters installed, whilst keeping the old system intact. (All those radiators/heaters on the walls:mad:).

So...the thing is this...we have had two plumbers tell us it would be a waste of money to have the system power flushed through after 20+ years of total inactivity because there is bound to be a leak (the copper piping is under the concrete flooring) ..also they said the rads might look in perfect condition on the outside but they will be full of muck (we appreciate this point) and probably corroded internally.

And, of course, we have no idea whether after all this time the Parkray itself would behave but we dare not light the thing until we know the pipe system would work....

..any thoughts on this problem would be greatly appreciated.

(We have considered leaving the night storage heaters and removing the other system and having an open fire but our 3 sons say we are crazy to take out what might be a perfect pipe system as they said they would install a proper oil boiler when they inherit the place)

We are going to rent the bungalow out - sadly we just cannot afford to have a boiler installed to replace both systems. :undecided

malc_b

It seems a big simplistic to say it must be corroded. What state was the system left when it was abandoned? Was it drained down or left full of water? Was there inhibitor in the water?

In a normal radiator heating system you fill it, with inhibitor, then don't do anything but use it for years. So why should this have deteriorated since high temperatures make chemical reactions like rusting occur faster?

I would imagine that the pump has seized up so that will need to be replace or at least taken off and freed up. And it would probably be a good idea to take the radiators off and flush them with a hose to check they are all clear. That would also take any rust out of the system. The copper pipes should be ok as they don't rust. They'll just have the sediment in them they had when the system was turn off 20 yr ago. If you take the radiators off and clean them outside then you'll not add more sediment.

There are aggressive cleaners and more gentle ones. The risk is a cleaner removing rust that is keeping the radiator together and you getting leaks. Or the leaks in Parkray. But if the water had inhibitor then these shouldn't have rusted too much. You could sample the water and see what it looks like. Fernox have a test where you put a nail in this water and see how fast it rusts to check if the inhibitor is working. Or you can get chemical kits but you have to know the make of inhibitor then I think.

I can't see why the copper pipes would leak, or be full of sediment if you don't flush it out of the radiators. For the parkray it would also be a good idea to try to flush that out and not introduce any rust from the that into the pipework.

BTW I converted my house with a similar set up to oil. I did this by taking out the fire and joining the gravity feed to the pumped feed. The fire was replaced by electric imitation. This meant the pumped system now extended to the airing cupboard which was above the kitchen. I could then remove some of the kitchen ceiling to make connection to a wall mounted oil boiler. Pump went into the airing cupboard. Another alternative I looked at was an external oil boiler but my wall is onto a path so that wouldn't work. Boilers are too noisy for a lounge.

DelilahFP

Many thanks.

The bungalow has actually been rented out for about 12 years to a couple who were not bothered about the Parkray - but they did remove the kitchen radiator to make room for some huge 'fridge and they drained the system.
So there has been no water in there for at least ten years.
(They have now gone and actually have caused huge damage within the property..that is another story..hence our doing the place up completely and wanting the system to work).

As for inhibitor - it would be nice to think there was some put in originally but, knowing the cowboys the builder employed to do the plumbing, it would not be a surprise to learn there was none put in.

We know the copper pipes were not sheathed when they were laid - would this be a negative factor, do you think?

muckybutt

DelilahFP wrote: »

We know the copper pipes were not sheathed when they were laid - would this be a negative factor, do you think?

Big time ! I certainly wouldn't want to reuse those again, I would say they will be heavily corroded from the concrete by now.

malc_b

It was common just to wrap felt insulation around copper pipes and bury them in the concrete (or rather the scree). I know I have found that when doing an extension. My house was built in 1982. And this

http://www.copper.org/applications/plumbing/techcorner/problem_embedding_copper_concrete.html

says there isn't a problem in doing this. My pipes are not leaking.

I would expect that the drained radiators have all gone rusty on the inside so they want taking off and flushing out. If they have rusted through then they'll need to be replaced but the lack of air should have stopped the rusting at some point so might not be as bad as all that.

DelilahFP

Thank you both of you - I will get my sons to take off one radiator (if they can get the joints undone!!!) and stick a hosepipe into it and see what happens.
Then we will worry about the pipes. We have delayed the carpet fitter now.
If only my parents-in-law had opted to put in a boiler when they decided the Parkray was too much of a bother. Sigh. They had the dosh, too. Wait 'til I get my hands on them (which with all the hoohah going on, will not be too long, I fear).

malc_b

You best bet is to take the radiators out into the garden and flush them there, less mess to clean up.

muckybutt

malc_b wrote: »

You best bet is to take the radiators out into the garden and flush them there, less mess to clean up.

I'll second that ! You can probably expect some very eggy smelling black gunge to come out of them when you flush them !

DelilahFP

Many thanks again. We took one radiator off...not a pretty sight! Well, the outside is still pretty but what came out....we had to hose the drive down afterwards :-) and the neighbour said he was packing his bags if we did that again ha!
We have made a decision as time is short and money is even shorter. The boys want the piping etc. left in place so that when they get their mitts on the place they can play around and install a new boiler and check the exisiting pipework, changing the rads if they need to. We need the income whist we are still breathing, so we are going to have the Parkray removed and an open fire put in it's place. We already have tenants queueing up who have said they are more than happy to have the storage heating (yuk double yuk) and an open fire will be the icing on the cake, as far as they are concerned, and they do not care about exisiting radiators sitting on the walls, nicely glossed but unusable.
The boys are happy with an open fire as they will keep it as such. (We have a massive open fire and it has proved indispensable during the times when we lose our electric, living as we do in the sticks).
All sorted then..sigh..... just the damage to put right now.
Thank you all XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX