British gas quote £765 for power flush to solve lukewarm All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[mjennings23]

Hi,

Really need advice as i sense i am being ripped off? problem we had was heating worked fine and rads operate ok....just we were getting lukewarm/warm water at best from all taps....never piping hot.

british gas engineer came, after banging around on the hot water tank and trying to boil out any blockage - he said we needed new release cyltrol valve on the tank as other once seems ceased up and thats why no hot water being released. he then showed me all the sludge coming from one of my rads it was slimy and black and quit a lot...he said this would need a system power flush as thats was probably clogging the tank up. it was then that he quoted me £765!!! after checking on web average price even from places like EON seem to be 350-400 quid how can this be right??

also since he left yesterday we now have not hot water at all ...its just cold now so we have gone from functioning fine just not piping hot to cold water and a bill for more work of 765! can anyone advise?..i have hm coming back today to explain why my water is now cold.
1: does it sound like powerflush is going to solve our problems? i admit the water looked sludgy and does probably need doing the issue i have is the price
2: is it better to go for cheaper quotes any recommendations?

Please any tips or advice appreciated this bill is going to clean me out !

Ta
MJ

[scheissefuergehirn]

If your radiators were hot then there wasn't too much sludge in them. Your lack of hot water now must be the result of whatever the plumber did to your system. I hope you didn't pay him the £765.

[PowerFlushAssoc]

1) Yes, it does sound like power flushing would be needed. Black water = power flush urgently needed
2) There is no problem with using smaller and cheaper companies; they use the same machines, chemicals and skill than the large ones. Larger companies have higher overheads which they need to pass on to their clients; smaller companies don’t have this problem.

Top tips:
- Use companies that do power flushing often, the more they do, the more experience they which means better results for you.
- It is risky to have them use strong acids in your metallic heating system. It is better for them to use a sludge remover, unless they feel that the build-up is so bad that sludge remover will not work.
- Sludge remover works better is it is added days or weeks in advance of a power flush being carried out, but an absolute minimum of two hours, while running the system hot is recommended. If at all possible; add the sludge remover yourself well before they come and do the power flush. It only costs around £15 and it will make the job faster for them and remove more sludge for you.
- Too cheap is not always the best idea. Get a reasonably priced specialist company. I would not be surprised at all if you can have it done correctly for under £400 all inclusive.

[Perry525]

If you work your way round all your radiators and drain them one at a time by disconnecting a pipe most of the black gunge will run out. Another way, is to remove each radiator in turn, take it into the garden and run cold water through it from your hose pipe.
As far as the hot water is concerned you probably have a dead valve, remove its head, open the valve, that should fix it. A new valve head is quite cheap. Save your £765!

[PowerFlushAssoc]

Even if you drain the system down and take off, and wash out, all the radiators. The pipes and boiler will still be full of sludge, the heavy and large pieces.
So at best, 50% effective at removing loose and mobile sludge and will take just as long to do as a power flush or longer. It will however reduce the overall amount of sludge you have in your system, which could help with minor problems.
It is not as effective as power flushing which removes >95% of loose sludge. Power flushing can gives dependable results, which helps when it is -5 degrees outside.
Shop around and you will get it done cheap enough.

[mjennings23]

Thanks for all replies...i had to get it done at the time as it was urgent.....and after kicking off with B.Gas about the whole event they sent 2 guys round next morning and drastically cut the quoted price to 400 odd quid... i witnessed them drain a hell of a lot of sludge out!...and they replaced various valves and new rad parts and to be honest they worked their asses off til late that evening and had no break...but it worked...whole system work so much better now.