What is a Powerflush and why do I need it?

A power flush is a cleansing process which removes the sludge that has built up inside your central heating system. If these substances are left in your system, it could impact the efficiency of your heating system by preventing even distribution of heat around your home.

A power flush could be an ideal solution to clean and maintain your central heating system to improve the amount of heat permitted from your radiators.

Eventually, the sludge in your system could also cause severe blockages and damage, leading to a costly breakdown to repair. During a power flush, water is sent rapidly through the system to extract debris, limescale and sludge.

When do I need a Powerflush?

There are many symptoms to look out for which could suggest that you have a sludge or corrosion in your system, including: 

• No water escapes when you bleed a radiator

• Cold areas at the bottom of your radiators

• Excessive noise from the boiler or the heating system pump

• Radiators cold but pipes are hot

• Heating is slow to warm up

• Cloudy tap water (limescale in system)

• Small leaks in radiators

• Some radiators struggle to heat up as well as others

• Boiler regularly shuts down and needs restarting

• Discoloured water when you bleed the radiators

• Noisy radiators and/or boiler

What are the benefits of a Powerflush?

• Radiators will heat up quicker

• Radiators will get hotter

• Quieter radiators / boiler

• More energy efficient system = cheaper energy bills

• Higher hot water temperatures

• More reliable i.e. less chance of breakdown

• Increase the life of your heating system

How does a Powerflush work?

An engineer will connect a pump to your central heating system. If it’s a Combi, it will be connected at the pump head but if it’s a System boiler it will be connected at the circulation pump. This pump will push special chemicals through the pipes, boiler and radiators.

This includes a chemical that will remove sludge and rust, a descaler to remove limescale and corrosion inhibitor to help prevent future rust from forming. The engineer will collect and dispose of any contaminated water, debris or particles that they remove from the system.

The engineer may also use special tools on the exterior of the radiator to dislodge stubborn blockages. They should be able to measure the temperature of your radiators before they have started work and then show you the improvement after the power flush.

The whole process can last anything from 6 – 10 hours depending on the number of radiators in your home, the age of the system and the severity of the sludge in the system. The engineer may find more problems than originally anticipated such as needing new parts to replace those that have been damaged beyond repair.

A qualified engineer will be able to perform repairs, replacements and conduct a power flush.

How much will a Powerflush cost?

There are lots of factors that will affect the price of a power flush such as size and complexity of the heating system, not to mention any incidental troubleshooting that crops up.

A power flush can cost anything between £300 to £1000+ but will also vary from engineer to engineer. Sometimes there will be additional costs like extra descaler chemicals or replacing the TRVs

It is important that your central heating system is as efficient as it can be at all times and, although a power flush can be an expensive process, it can also save a substantial amount of money over time in reduced heating bills.

Is a Powerflush always the solution?

In some cases you may find that it’s actually more cost effective to replace the system than carry out a power flush. A power flush will not fix broken parts. If a blockage has caused a part to break that will add time and cost to the job to get the system back to optimum performance. A professional will be able to advise you if this is the case.

IMPORTANT: If you are planning to replace your boiler, it’s important that the engineer performs a Powerflush before the installation. Otherwise, you risk contaminating the new boiler with damaging slude and debris from the old pipework.