Hydronic system flushing - how often?

28W

When I converted from oil to gas this year, the installer did a thorough flush of all the piping and radiation (baseboard and convector) prior to installing the new boiler.  Should annual maintenance include flusing the system? 

Tim McElwain

Not on a FHW system

in fact I am a big fan of water treatment which once done should last a long time. Fresh water is the enemy to a system,

icesailor

Flushed:

Especially if the water has a low PH (well below 7.0) and there is nothing in the boiler/system to buffer the water up.

Orange boiler water can be a very bad thing.

bugaboo

Not a good idea

An annual flush will lead to a rotten boiler.

When water is introduced into the system it carries "free" oxygen. This free oxygen will combine with the iron in the boiler and create rust. Once all of the free oxygen has combined with the iron the rusting will stop. Any time you add fresh water you add free oxygen and cause more rust.

Leave it sealed and you are all set.

28W

Alrighty then!

Thanks for the great advice, guys. One less thing to worry about.

CMadatMe

Low Loss Header

You have a LLH installed in your system. Any debris in the system is going to fall to the bottom of it. At service time, you simply blow any debris out at the provided boiler drain.

28W

Great

Is it as simple as opening the drain, or does "blowing out" the debris involve pressure? I'm not going to do the service, but I am curious.

Paul48

Remember

Your system is under pressure.

28W

D'oh! Of course it is

Thanks for clearing that up. I forgot about that.