In the absence of any decent football to talk about, and following on from bog, shower and microwave problems on another thread, I thought I'd impart another recent DIY story @ Chez Sparkey that might help someone - this time with my CH system. Been experiencing pressure drop on my Megaflow sealed system these past few months through the winter. Had to top it up regularly to maintain pressure at about 1 bar. Must be a small leak somewhere so checked all the rad valves, drain offs, boiler and cylinder unions, pipework in backs of cupboards and even looked for any small damp patches on the ceilings to indicate a problem under the bedroom floorboards. Nothing - dry as a bloody bone so my worst fears were probably the case. My ground floor CH pipes are all laid in the floor screed and I've got engineered oak hardwood laid over the top of it throughout. Knew where the pipe runs were, but had no idea where the small leak might be - it could have been anywhere and didn't fancy ripping that lot up to find it. Spoke to Fernox a few weeks back about their Polymer Emulsion system leak sealer. It seeks out small weeps and leaks and seals it from the inside permanently, so thought I'd give it a go. Two cans of pressurised Fernox F4 Express whacked into the system through the filling loop (no more than a 5 minute job), fired up the system to full heat and let it run. Topped up the pressure to exactly 1 bar on the gauge when hot and waited. Let it cool off overnight as usual and fired up to full heat again the next day - the dial hadn't budged. I've checked the gauge every day since and three weeks later it hasn't shifted off that 1 bar marker on the dial - just brilliant. That stuff is just bloody magic and has probably saved me hundreds if not thousands of pounds ripping up and re-laying my flooring. BTW, I'm not receiving any commission on this post but if it helps anyone else with a similar problem, it'll have been worth it.
WD40 was recommended to me to take a varnish stain off a carpet. Bloody hell it did the trick...amazing product! SImiliarly to Sparkey I am not receiving any back handers for recommending this product pals!
Ah! Central heating showing itself to be the emotive subject it's always been. I think back to the times when I had arguments about the suggested value of microbore (8 & 10mm) pipes on domestic systems. They should have listened to me because all that Mickey Mouse piping is being ripped out for the traditional 15mm (was 1/2" in my time) that is, and always has been the more efficient. Just a fad to sell manifolds. They should have taken some Fernox Inhibitor themselves! Sorry about the clumsy sentence structure but I feel passionate about all of this. Alternatively, Wales are in action this week.
Keep up clingo, the rugby has finished until September. Mini bore, micro bore, and standard pipes. Pros and cons. The micro bore does get the radiators hot quickly. My dad had standard size pipes under the floor in the hall. Think the concrete expanded and contracted slightly with the heat of the pipes. One joint kept going. He ended up surface mounting new pipes. Luckily he built the house himself so sorted it quite quickly. On the flip side, he had no one else to blame.
All 1",3/4" &1/2" in my house clingo. Newer additions in 22 and 15mm since the house was originally built (1970) are no problem. None of that blockage inducing 8 and 10mm microbore or crap plastic joke plumbing that sprung up and seemed to have taken over about 20 years ago. I was involved in the trade back then and the developers had so many deals thrust at them by the plastic plumbing manufactuers, it was forced upon us to use it over copper. Ahh....I can still smell the flux now.......
It hasn't finished for me yet. I live in Gloucester which is a rugby hotbed and I fully intend ribbing my neighbours ad nauseam. and Microbore sucks - in a jetting sort of way.
Where in Gloucester cling? Worked in Cheltenham for a few years when living in Cheshire, and covered lots of the county in my playing days when living in Bristol. Across to Matson and Coney hill in the forest, longlevens, (is Thornbury Gloucester or avon, or whatever it's called these days?). Few other places North of Cheltenham as well. Happy days.
I'm in the Robinswood area of Gloucester itself. Matson and Coney Hill are both areas of the city which these days have a reputation for being a bit dodgy. Thornbury is in the county of Gloucestershire but only just. Gloucester is quite run down in the city centre but there's a significant development nearing completion on the Quays.
Sorry sparkey. My bending spring popped out unexpectedly. Trying to replace it now otherwise it'll be another Yorkshire YS12 elbow. (it's like tennis elbow only with solder).
Never liked bending springs. We all used Rothenburger bending machines - even the microbore hand held benders for our sins. Also Yorkshire fittings were for the rich and lazy.........
