Removing sludge from rad

irishguy

I seem to have one rad in the house thats pretty cold at the bottom, I am guessing its a build up of sludge. Is there anyway of removing it or does it need to be power flushed? How much would this cost approx?

crossmolinalad

Had it once couple of years ago
Took radiator of the wall brought it outside and flushed it with my powerwasher
costs nothing just a little bit of my own time

items

If you have a F&E tank in attic with oil boiler then you could buy a ltr or two of Fernox system cleaner.

Drain some water out of heating system @ boiler drain point, pour cleaner into F&E tank, let heating work under normal use for a few days / weeks then empty heating system. Cleaner will break up sludge, most can be drained out at boiler, not all can be removed but its best step to take before power flushing.

If your going to try it out, pick up a ltr or two of heating system inhibitor and introduce inhibitor same way as cleaner, when its time to re fill heating. Inhibitor will help prevent any more sludge build up.

Most plumbing suppliers have system cleaners / inhibitors, they might not have fernox but you get the idea. All the instructions tend to be on bottle, even a few tips on how to drain, fill, vent heating system.

chuck eastwood

I just took all my rads off the wall and flushed them out.whole Lotta crap came out. had to take them off anyway as some of the old valves were leaking, Replaced them with TRV's.started it all up about.I wouldn't bother paying someone to come in and do it but be sure to put an inhibitor in when you fill your system

In a ideal world the need for a power flush should be decided on the level of contamination, the cleansers work well to a point but can't match a power flush on heavily contaminated systems.
Sludge has a sandy constancy and will end up at the lowest point of a system, normally the pipe work below the rads, also adding inhibitor to anything but fresh clean water can a lead to a nasty soup thats very aggressive to plastics and components on a heating system especially gas, Gary

Buford T Justice

items wrote: »

If you have a F&E tank in attic with oil boiler then you could buy a ltr or two of Fernox system cleaner.

Drain some water out of heating system @ boiler drain point, pour cleaner into F&E tank, let heating work under normal use for a few days / weeks then empty heating system. Cleaner will break up sludge, most can be drained out at boiler, not all can be removed but its best step to take before power flushing.

If your going to try it out, pick up a ltr or two of heating system inhibitor and introduce inhibitor same way as cleaner, when its time to re fill heating. Inhibitor will help prevent any more sludge build up.

Most plumbing suppliers have system cleaners / inhibitors, they might not have fernox but you get the idea. All the instructions tend to be on bottle, even a few tips on how to drain, fill, vent heating system.

+1
Doing this at the moment. In my experience you are better off going with this than washing out the rad as the sludge will just build up again wtihout an inhibitor.

sweetie

items wrote: »

If you have a F&E tank in attic with oil boiler then you could buy a ltr or two of Fernox system cleaner.

sorry, what is F&E? cheers

items

sweetie wrote: »

sorry, what is F&E? cheers

Feed & Expansion.

Back in the old days pretty much all heating systems in Ireland were open vented, solid fuel fires with back boilers along with solid fuel ranges etc had to be open vented as no real control over heat coming from solid fuel.

F&E tank is used to provide cold water (feed) and to allow for hot water (expansion). F&E also used for termination of heating vent pipe.

Its just a small tank, most plumbers back then fitted F&E tanks on top of cold water storage tanks propped up with timber, if not on top then F&E would be just beside storage tank.

No real need for F&E tanks unless part of heating system is open, sealed Oil boiler / open vent back boiler.

I find a lot of jobs where F&E is still part in use, only providing cold feed to heating, no expansion takes place, vent pipe is either blanked off or some connect an expansion vessel to vent. I take out F&E tanks where possible after sealing a heating system, no need for two ballcocks in attic, two overflows, best remove and fill heating directly from mains through a mains filling loop.

irishguy

The heating system is open alright and I have two water tanks in the attic, but they are the same size (one on top of the other). This is a bit strange as I thought one should be smaller?

items

irishguy wrote: »

The heating system is open alright and I have two water tanks in the attic, but they are the same size (one on top of the other). This is a bit strange as I thought one should be smaller?

F&E tank can hold anything from 4 to 12ltr of water, tank shouldn't be to big but stranger things have happened. F&E should only have one outlet, norm 1/2". Cold storage should have more than one, prob 2 or 3 if you have an electric shower. Outlets @ bottom.

Once you figure out which is which, you can belt away with system cleaner should you go down that route.

Simple way to find out which tank is which, run off a bath and you'll notice cold water storage tank filling.

irishguy

items wrote: »

F&E tank can hold anything from 4 to 12ltr of water, tank shouldn't be to big but stranger things have happened. F&E should only have one outlet, norm 1/2". Cold storage should have more than one, prob 2 or 3 if you have an electric shower. Outlets @ bottom.

Once you figure out which is which, you can belt away with system cleaner should you go down that route.

Simple way to find out which tank is which, run off a bath and you'll notice cold water storage tank filling.

I must give that a go then thanks.

irishguy

items wrote: »

If you have a F&E tank in attic with oil boiler then you could buy a ltr or two of Fernox system cleaner.

Drain some water out of heating system @ boiler drain point, pour cleaner into F&E tank, let heating work under normal use for a few days / weeks then empty heating system. Cleaner will break up sludge, most can be drained out at boiler, not all can be removed but its best step to take before power flushing.

If your going to try it out, pick up a ltr or two of heating system inhibitor and introduce inhibitor same way as cleaner, when its time to re fill heating. Inhibitor will help prevent any more sludge build up.

Most plumbing suppliers have system cleaners / inhibitors, they might not have fernox but you get the idea. All the instructions tend to be on bottle, even a few tips on how to drain, fill, vent heating system.

I just had a look at it there and I cant seem to see how I would drain the system. The only thing I can see is a silver flexible pipe going into the expansion tank at the back of the boiler (Round red tank). There doesnt appear to be any valve or anything...

sullzz

should be a drain on boiler itself either on front or back at very bottom of boiler, if not check pipework around boiler area for a drain valve .

items

irishguy wrote: »

I just had a look at it there and I cant seem to see how I would drain the system. The only thing I can see is a silver flexible pipe going into the expansion tank at the back of the boiler (Round red tank). There doesnt appear to be any valve or anything...

Thats just a 3/4 flexi to connect vessel to heating system. Boiler drain is located at bottom of boiler, sometimes its hard to see, might be covered by foil back insulation that surrounds boiler. Boiler drain is a small brass fitting with a small spout for connecting a hose onto, to open drain you'll need a small adjustable spanner. When you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about.