Throughout its lifetime, your boiler will heat and recirculate the water within your central heating system thousands of times. Subsequently, the condition of this water can have a huge impact on the reliability of your boiler and the performance and efficiency of your heating system in general.

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Water contains Oxygen and Oxygen creates Oxidation. Typically anywhere you find metal and water together, you will find a degree of Oxidation and a breakdown in the composition of the metal, the biproduct of which most of us will know as rust.

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In a plumbing and heating context, this biproduct is known as magnetite. A dark brown/black predominantly metallic sludge substance known for choking central heating systems and causing unnecessary workload for boilers, pumps etc. Magnetite is heavier than water so has a tendency to settle in the bottom of radiators and pipework, reducing the radiators ability to radiate heat into the room and causing your boiler to run for longer periods than is necessary. It also restricts flow within pipework causing central eating pumps to work harder. Eventually the Magnetite is circulated back to the boiler where it can cause blockages in heat exchangers, excessive wear to pumps, block expansion vessels and generally cause havoc,

 

But there is a solution. 

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As we said in the beginning, magnetite is predominantly metallic, meaning by incorporating a large magnetic filter in the central heating system, we are able to catch any magnetite that is circulating within the system before it reaches your boiler. While this alone will not equate to any noticeable improvement in terms of heat output at the radiator as the Magnetite in the radiator is not circulating within the system, it will still serve to protect your boiler.

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If we want to take this a step further and regain the full heating potential of our radiators, then a system flushing service is usually required. In this case a chemical cleaner is added to the system and allowed to circulate within the system for a number of hours or sometimes days depending on the severity of the build-up,

 

A larger duel-filter device is then connected to the central heating system and each radiator is agitated individually, dislodging the build-up from inside the radiator, which is collected by the two large magnetic filters and removed from the system.

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After this process is completed, the system is then flushed to remove the cleaning agent, and a corrosion inhibitor is added to reduce Oxidation, subsequently reducing the amount of Magnetite produced. These inhibitors can drastically reduce corrosion within the system, protecting your central heating components for years at a time,

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Carrying out this process ensures maximum performance from your heating system, while reducing running costs, potential repair costs, and allowing your heating system to bring your home up to the desired temperature quickly and efficiently, so whether you're noticing your property is slow to warm up or you've noticed cooler patches in the bottom of your radiators, maybe its time to consider having one of our engineers install a Magnaclean Magnetic filter or carry out a Magnacleanse System flush at your property.