I am writing this question on behalf of my Mum who is having a central heating problem as follows.

All of the radiators in the system are only getting warm not hot at all, she has been advised by British Gas (BG) that she needs a powerflush of the system at a cost of £800 with them. They say if that does not work they will check the pipework (she has an insurance to cover the pipes too) but they will not do that until it has been flushed. My Mum regularly bleeds the radiators so we know that is not the issue. My Mum is 70 years old and cannot afford the £800 quoted by BG
What I want to know is the following:
Is it likely that a powerflush will fix the problem?
Is it something more deep rooted than that?
If I took the radiatiors off individualy and flushed them through could that work?

Kind Regards

Tony

£800 is because they don't do the job they contract it out and still get a cut.

i & many others do a 7 rad system for approx £350 which is about the going rate.

>All of the radiators in the system are only getting warm not hot at all

are they warm all over or only at the top etc ?

>They say if that does not work they will check the pipework

you need to give some info on the system
boiler, system etc

>My Mum regularly bleeds the radiators so we know that is not the issue.

whats not the issue ?

bleeding the rads constanly due to air in the system is a sign that the system is sludged or air is being drawn in due to a fault on the system.

what answer is that ? i do tests that the public see and that tells me if the system needs flushing or not
i never give an answer it might work.

Dear Sir

Thanks for the prompt reply, here are some more details, the only reason my mum bleeds the system is just in case it is air that has worked its way through, but she assures me that there is no air in the system it is just water that comes out of the Rads not air.
Details of the system are as follows:-
Boiler = potterton Suprema
Pipework is Std pipework, my Dad used to be a plumber when he was alive so ensured that the right pipework wasw used.
Rads = 10
Each of the rads are only getting tepid at the top and cold at the bottom, there is only one radiator that gets any heat to it at all out of the 10.

Please can you advise then if there is a possibility of fixing if I take each rad off and flush them through ?

Regards

Tony

i take it its an open vented system 2 tanks in the loft hw cylinder in the cupboard etc.

1st i would check the condition of the water in the small f/e tank in loft.
you may need to put your hand in as and sludge silt etc will settle.
check to see if its just a thin layer of silt, thick sludge etc.

that will give us some idea on the condition of system and what route to start taking.

you can also isolate one of the lowest cold rads and remove it and hold vertical over a bowl etc to see if an black sludge like syrup comes out and then flush it with a hose replace.

check the loft tank first then we can see where to go and what checmical to add to help the system.

Hi

Yes it is an open vented system with two tanks and a cylinder in a cupboard and this is in a bungalow.
I went into the loft, the small tank has no silt or sludge at all, it is completely clean so I am going to take one of the radiators off to see the condition of the contents of that and will let you know.
Just wanted to say a big thanks from me and my Mum, it is nice to know that you can still get advice and it not cost an arm and a leg, we really appreciate your help.

Kind regards

Tony

Dear Sirs

This is a follow up to the latest with the central heating problem my mum is still having:

This weekend just gone we have done the following-
We drained the system
individually emptied every rad and flushed it through
put new taps on each rad
filled the system back up with flusher liquid added to the header tank
blead the rads
turned the boiler on
blead the rads again
and only 3 out of 10 rads had any temperature at all
we then drained the system again
poured in the protection liquid to the header tank
refilled the system
blead the rads
turned the boiler on
blead the rads again
again only 3 of 10 got hot
we then went round and tried to balance all the rads, my method was to have the temp taps fully open, and the balance taps fully closed and then starting at the begining of the run increase each rad (blance tap) by a quarter of a turn each, getting more open towards the end of the run.
by doing this we managed to get 6 of 10 rads hot
the 4 cold rads are specificaly the ones we want to be getting hot

Having done this I had the thought that wouldn't it be better if it had a bigger flow from the start and gradually scaled down the flow towards the end of the run, I tried that this morning and could not get any of the radiators hot at all not even the 6 we had previously got hot, so i put it back the way i had it and still the radiators are stone cold.

In light of all this work and the results obtained this throws up some questions

1. when facing the Rad which tap should be the balance tap right or left
1a. can they be mixed ie left on one and right on another
1b. Which way should we turn the tap to get it fully open anti clockwise or clockwise
2. when balancing rads should the balance taps start fully open or fully shut before adjusting them
3. should the other tap be fully open or shut when balancing rads

I am so sorry that this is a long post but I am not a plumber and am doing my best I can for my mum with the limited budget she has.

Hope you can help.
Kind regards
Tony

what do you call a temp tap ? and a balance tap ?

1. could be any depends how it was plumbed when installed.

1A. yes

1B. open anti clockwise etc

2. ?

3. ?

example you have the basic idea of the rad nearest open 1/4 turn rad furthest 1/2 turn etc.

useally we pipe a rad when looking at it the flow on left return on right.

if your rad is fitted with standard rad valves the flow one is called wheelhead the return one is called the locksheild.

if your rad has a trv one end useally fitted to the flow side but many now days can be bi-directional and fitted any end.

useally when balancing a system you start the system from cold and locate what is the flow on every rad by the pipe that heats first.

when balancing the wheelhead valves [flow] are all fully open and locksheild valves [return] fully closed.

as in your system you need to get every rad working first so i would locate the non working rads
and shut all the rads that heat.
and only have one non working one open at first to get an airlocks out of the pipework as this one heat go on to the next non working rad.

not knowing your layout don't help. useally they will airlock in any drop downs to the rads.

but you need to get every rad working first then worry about balancing.

have a read of this it how we useally do it gives you an idea.
http://www.diydata.com/projects/centralheating/balancing/radiator_balancing.php