Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it is sold to people who do not need it. Here is how a local heating engineer decides.
When a powerflush is the right call
- Several radiators cold along the bottom
- Black water when you bleed a radiator
- A boiler that bangs, kettles or keeps overheating
- A new boiler going onto an old, dirty system
In those cases the sludge is right through the pipework and the boiler. Flushing one radiator will not reach it.
When it is not
- Only one radiator is cold at the bottom: take that one off and flush it.
- Radiators cold at the top: that is air. Bleed them.
- Far rooms cold, near rooms warm: the system needs balancing, not flushing.
- Pressure dropping every week: that is a leak or the expansion vessel. A flush will not fix it.
What a proper powerflush involves
A machine is connected to the system and pumps water and the right cleaning chemicals through at a high flow, radiator by radiator, until the water runs clean. Then the system is refilled with clean water and inhibitor.
The bit that makes it last
A magnetic filter goes on afterwards. Without one, the corrosion that made the sludge carries on, and in a few years you are back where you started. With one, the magnetite is caught in the filter and cleaned out at each boiler service instead of settling in the radiators.
Before a new boiler
Every new boiler we fit includes a system flush and a magnetic filter. If the system is badly sludged, a full powerflush may be needed as well, and that is priced before you book, never added on the day.
Price
A powerflush is priced before we start, based on the size of the system and how dirty it is. Tell us what you are seeing and we will tell you honestly whether it is a flush, a bleed or a balance.