8mm pipes clogged?

[Laurenmw]

Hi,

We have a 12 year old Worcester combi boiler in our 3 bed house. Over the last few weeks the radiators upstairs stopped heating up completely.

We had someone come out and look at it and he basically said that although the boiler is old, it’s a good boiler. However, after looking at the radiators upstairs he said that they were 8mm pipes which were likely to be clogged with sludge, hence why we are not getting any heat to them. He gave us the only option of having new rads, which we could of done without as it’s obviously going to cause a lot of work to be done e.g ripping the flooring up and getting to the pipes which are cased into the wall downstairs.

I asked about flushing the system, but he said that it wouldn’t work with the pipes being 8mm.

I’m just wondering whether this sounds right and also wanted to find out whether we would still have to get all the pipe work done if we just decided to get a new boiler instead?

Thanks in advance

 

[oldbuffer]

1. Power flushing micro-bore pipes is unlikely to be successful, and particularly if there is not even partial circulation.
2. If the pipes are blocked it doesn't matter how powerful the boiler is in terms of heat production, the heat won't reach the radiators.
3. I would try the following:
3.1 Pick one radiator to try.
3.2 Turn the boiler off and drain the system.
3.3 Disconnect the incoming / outgoing pipes from the selected radiator.
3.4 Use a piece of net curtain wire to poke as far as you can down the pipes, to agitate and loosen any sludge.
3.5 Take the radiator off the wall and flush it through with water (outside!) in both directions, tapping with a soft faced hammer or piece of wood while flushing.
3.6 Reinstall radiator, refill system and see if it heats up.
3.7 If it works for one, repeat for all.
3.8 If it doesn't work for one. maybe try another.
3.9 Repeat as necessary.
4. If you can get circulation to all radiators, use a system cleaner like Sentinel X400. Leave in the system, and run it, for 3 or 4 weeks, then drain the system and refill with clean water. Add inhibitor such as Sentinel X100.

 

[terryplumb]

How many upstairs radiator's are there in total, and did they all stop working at the same time ?

 

[Laurenmw]

How many upstairs radiator's are there in total, and did they all stop working at the same time ?

There are 4 radiators in total (one is a towel rail in the bathroom). Yes they all stopped working at the same time. The radiators downstairs are also starting to feel like they are not heating up properly. Just for an example, I turned the hearing on this morning and noticed that it wasn’t feeling very warm downstairs. I bled the radiators and a substantial amount of air came out of all three of them. They then returned to actually feeling hot but just a couple of hours later they were back to feeling cooler, and seem like they are full of air again.

 

[terryplumb]

Are all upstairs rads full of water and bled of air ?

 

[Laurenmw]

Are all upstairs rads full of water and bled of air ?

They are yes

 

[terryplumb]

Close the downstairs radiators by their thermostatic radiator valves ( TRV's) if they are fitted,and run central heating . See if upstairs rads start to heat.