Five Symptoms That Your Heating System Needs A Power Flush

• by Danny Eubanks
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• Home Repair

Five Symptoms That Your Heating System Needs A Power Flush

A power Flush (or powerflushing) is work underaken by specialist plumbing companies to remove rust and heating system sludge from a residential or commercial property.
Because the gradual rusting of a system takes place ‘inside’ the pipework and radiators the only time the property owner or tenant is going to notice that there is a build-up of sludge is whent the system starts to develop symptoms.

Here are five common signs that it is time to call in the professionals for advice and, if need be, a price:

1/ No matter what you set the wall stat on, the place doesn’t warm up. Either the boiler doesn’t stay on long enough or it fires all the time but nothing gets hot.

2/ Some or all of your radiators are hot at the top and cold at the bottom. In the plumbing trade this heat pattern is sometimes known as the ‘camel-hump’ because of the way it look through a thermal imaging camera. In the picture below you can see why…

3/ Some of your radiators are just not working at all. Helpful tip: If you have thermostatic radiator valves on the radiator affected take a SMALL hammer and tap gently on the metal part of the valve. The washer inside may just be stuck and tapping it sometimes loosens it.

4/ Your hot water runs hot and cold with the boiler firing up and then shutting down within one minute. If you have a combination boiler that provides your heating and hot water without a hot water cylinder then the device that heat the water inside the boiler may become blocked. This is called a hot water heat exchanger and the waterways within it can become blocked by rust and other debris in the heating system. This part may need replacing even after the power flush, but in any event if you donot remove the rust then you will have the same problem again.

5/ Your boiler is noisy. Because boilers heat up water quickly, if the water is not being pumped away from it quickly due to poor circulation then the water inside the boiler starts to boil and make knocking sound. This is know as ‘kettling’ and a sure sign that either your circulation pump has failed or the pipes are so badly sludge up that the water cannot move through the boiler quickly enough.

Five tips to help you make an informed choice. If you want more information about power flushing you can talk to any competent local plumber or visit powerflushuk.com.