Today Chris and I cheered up a 95 year old lady.  It’s not very often we get to do that.

Such a pleasure. I mean, how many 95 year olds do any of us get to meet in a lifetime?  If all ninety-five year olds are such lively talkers and so good to be around then, well, I wish my own grandparents had lived closer and longer.

Chris tried to do a powerflush for the lady a week ago and it was a “horrible” job for him because he gets immense satisfaction when driving away from a job knowing that the customer is more than happy.  He’s a real tradesman professional.

Unfortunately,there was so much crap in the system that when the loose rust started moving around in the pipes  it could do nothing but get trapped by the caked on rust already in the pipework. Each flake trapped behind the one in front like a sudden twig dam in a woodland stream. Result = no flow.

At this point some powerflushing companies would have had to call it a day.  They don’t have enough knowledge/experience of heating system designs.  We do and came back to sort things out once and for all.  After investigation a short length of pipe replaced and another powerflush done afterwards.

What a lady!   95 years old, with a frame as light as a thrush and a laugh as light as birdsong.

We are so soft these days that we expect the heat to be on at the flick of a switch. Yet here she was, at 95, lived through the war, contendedly living on her own and ready to put up with less heating than she had been used to – which was pretty rubbish anyway. The sludge had to have been building up for may years.

But now she’s happy.  And so are we.

Her son had got in touch on her behalf after the BG engineer turned up and said that a powerflush would sort things out for her. Son, being careful with mum’s money, asked his local plumber to do it, but he doesn’t power flush “at the moment” and so recommended us.

I don’t know about you, but every now and then I like spending time in churches.  I find them to be peaceful places.

Today’s job was in the hall of St.Theresa’s Catholic Church, Filton, Bristol.  I don”t  know for sure, but I suspect it used to be the place where the congregation worshipped before building the huge big brick place next to it.

Although there was nothing that made it particularly difficult (from a heating engineers point of view) it was an interesting job.  The access was a little higher than usual (at the top of a stepladder) and I decided to use a pump adaptor head to flush through both boiler and radiators at the same time.

The boiler was a Vaillant Eco Tec Combination boiler.  An excellent boiler.  Robust, easy to work on and relatively easy to clean out.

Rust-wise, there wasn’t much magnetite (Fe3O5) in the system to turn the water black, but there were enough larger particles of standard rust (FeO2) to cease up a circulation pump.  (Which is why Father Finnegan called us in in the first place.)

After the powerflush – and descale because Bristol has hard water – the system is guaranteed clean.

The job was completed and we were out in time to avoid stepping on the toes of the the dancers due later that day.

All in all, a peaceful and gratifying day.

I watch some forums to see what people want to know about powerflushing. Today the following post had so many replies after a few hours – some good, some down right dangerous – that I just had to offer an opinion.

Original Post from Ellis Hill

To power flush or not to…
Hello All

I’m looking for an honest opinion! We have just moved into a house with a big radiator sludge problem. The sludge has got round into the boiler and damaged the heat exchanger. My problem is this, have been advised to have power flush done and magnetic valve fitted on the one hand. On the other have been told this is waste of time and removing the individual rads one by one and flushing with garden hose is just as effective(also £600 cheaper). So before the boiler gets repaired, which one works best?

And here’s my reply:

A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing. So many well-meaning people have an opinion on anything. So I’ll add my two-penneth.

To give an accurate opinion though there a few things I would need to know. they are the questions I ask anyone before agreeing to do a powerflush for them (Based upon eight years of busy powerflushing experience and twelve years installing/trouble-shooting heating systems.)

1. What make, model and age of boiler do you have?
2. Who says there is a serious sludge problem?
3. Where do you live?
4. What size pipework goes into the radiator valves?
5. Is there anything else going on that is bothering you or might be important?
6. How many rads do you have?

And then, over the phone there would be ohter questions that follow on from that. How anyone can pontificate on Exactly what is the right solution for you without talking to you is beyond me.

Some people think that powerflushing is the best thing since sliced bread. Some think it’s a big rip-off. Both are right. Not really, but there’s no convincing them otherwise.

Personally, I know that powerflushing is great – for some problems.

Other times, it’s just one thing available amongst other solutions and only experience can tell which is best.

Occasionally, it can do more damage than good.

So it’s horses for courses.

Pricewise, any duffer can get themselves a machine, read the instructions, learn how to take a pump off without spraying water over the place and call themselves a powerflush expert. But, in their heart they know the score and (unless they are a sociopath) will not be able to charge what they would if they really were as good as they claimed to be.

For a professional job you have to pay a professional’s price.

Ellis Hill, you don’t mention how many rads you have (Q6), but if for example, you had 7 doubles with an old high-water content boiler with a cast-iron heat exchanger (Q1), with 15mm pipework into the rads (Q4) I could give you an estimate of what a professional power flush would cost you.

If you also told me that you live in a hard water area (Q3) so I knew that you needed a de-scale of the heat exchanger too (subject to answer to Q1) and then gave me as much information as possible (Q5) then I could give you a better idea.

After all of that, if it’s apparent that nothing else is going on with your system, and that you really do need a power flush then I’d give you a firm price. In this example, £475.00 inc VAT. A magnaclean would be extra but if the job is done well most older boilers do not need them fitted. (And they are only designed to protect the boiler after all.)

I hope that helps.

If you have any questions specific to your situation please PM me and we can talk over the phone. Happy to offer advice whether you are in my area or not.

Best wishes

Ian Pritchard