Adding inhibitor in magnaclean filter.

JustAnotherSaver

Our boiler is losing pressure. At Xmas it was at 1.5 bar when 'cold' but now it's just under 1.0bar. There's no obvious leaks. Nothing wet near any of the radiators.
It'll keep going so it'll end up having to be re-pressurised.

Now i did this in the past and didn't add any new inhibitor. Our water ended up black, we ended up with a new rad getting a hole on the face of it & the manufacturer wouldn't replace under warranty as the system had been ran without enough inhibitor in.

So i'll learn from the error and put some in when i do repressurise it.


We had one of those Magnaclean filters installed at Xmas time too. Is it really just a case of whip the 'cap' off & pour the bottle in and put the cap back on?

When you pull the magnet out and wipe the crud off, do you just put the magnet back in and it's good to go like that or do you need to do anything else?




And a little off topic but when i took my car to the garage to get the A/C gassed, we got talking and story short he mentioned leaky systems and "that's why you should turn your central heating on now and then during summer to avoid leaks when you fire it up in winter for the first time"

Is this correct? I'd just not touch the central heating throughout summer and then when it gets cold enough later in the year i'd put the heating on.
As we approach warmer months, should you just fire it up now and again? If so then A) how often and how long for?

Ruski

Turn system off. Isolate the magnaclean with the valves and empty it out via the drain at the bottom (will be a little bit pressurised). Use plastic wrench to take cap off, clean magnet, make sure drain valve is closed and add inhibitor to about 3/4 full (1 litre won't fit in on one go). Replace magnet/cap, open isolator valves and let system run for a couple of minutes.
Repeat to get remainder of inhibitor into system.

Bleed any air out of Magnaclean. Check for leaks. Better if you have a new o-ring (kit's specifically for servicing widely available).

Top up system.

Job done.

But you really need to find the source of the drop in pressure.

HTH
Russ

JustAnotherSaver

After all that i forgot the main reason i actually made this thread:

when is best to do this? Not just adding inhibitor but raising the pressure?

First thing in a morning when the heating has been off for some time?

Actually turn the boiler off at the mains before we go to bed and then do it in the morning so that everything is totally cool?

When?

Ruski wrote: »

But you really need to find the source of the drop in pressure.

HTH
Russ

Yeah i understand that's the only true fix.

Can they add some kind of dye in to the system similar to checking for A/C leaks? If it's a valve it may only be weeping ever so slightly, not enough to notice by looking at it i guess?

Ruski

TBH is doesn't make much difference - from a common sense safety point you don't really want to be doing it then the water's at 80 degrees, and most will tell you to do it on a cold system - which is sound advice.

Pressure should really be set when the system is cold - it's ok to do it on a 'hot' system, but the pressure will drop once the system has cooled down, so you'll be topping up again, no major drama.

Don't over think these things - there is always some leeway in everything we do!

Dye wouldn't likely help - you've lost half a bar over 5 months, it'll be a weep somewhere, just keep looking

HTH

Russ

bris

Always top up the pressure when cold. When hot the pressure rises so doing it hot will not give you a true correct pressure.


The pressure should be set according to the manufacturers instructions, usually 1-1.5 bar.

JustAnotherSaver

Ruski wrote: »

Dye wouldn't likely help - you've lost half a bar over 5 months, it'll be a weep somewhere, just keep looking

I've been round them all and can't see a thing. I've checked when cold and hot. I've checked the top corners and bottom corners of the rads and see nothing. No staining over the rads suggesting a leak where you wouldn't expect it either.

The closest i come to is one rad that has some green around the PTFE tape. I've wiped it down as best i can with a wonder wipe so i'll see if this greens up again in the short term. Problem is i couldn't make it go back totally white so i'll have to be sure how green it was in order to compare.