Power Flusher

Tom_133

I found that Fernox makes a unit an MKIII but that thing is the price of a used car!!!!

Any other units out there, or am I going to have to build my own?

hot_rod

check you PM messages

kcopp

Rhomar imported one from europe made by Kamco.
Its decent.
http://www.rhomarwater.com/Power_Flushers_Filters.html

I got mine through FW Webb.

Tom_133

Thanks Kcopp, I didnt realize caleffi makes one too, and amazingly its 1/2 the price of the Fernox machine.

kcopp

Fernox used to have the Mark1 unit and it is still used in Europe. For some reason they did not like the set up here and they nixed it from the lineup. They then built this new unit. Nice powerful unit. Yes very expensive.... but beyond that the thing is a beast. It takes two people to move it around.

Tom_133

So this was suppose to be flushing some overdue onix jobs. Then today I got a call from a customer who has a 4 story probably 80 apt building that has 1.5" copper main to each floor, feeding zone valves for each apt. Will a power flush work with that height, and pipe size?

hot_rod

To do a good flush of solids and crud you need about 5 fps velocity. So in 1-1/2" copper you would need to pump about 30 gpm. That would take a substantial pump, maybe a 2 - 3 hp pool pump?

With a smaller pump you would want to isolate at the manifold and maybe purge 2 or 3 loops at a time.

The sludge in those rubber tube jobs is mainly in the hose loops themself. If you can go to the manifold and do the flush there instead of through the 1-1/2 piping. But you need to first find the manifolds and valve into them.

80 apartments could take weeks!
It sometimes takes 15- 20 minutes per loop tom get a good clean flow coming thru. And it could involve adding a cleaner first to loosen the adhered stuff.

EzzyT

I’ve built a few of them on the same concept of the Caleffi one but with added components like the Magnetic and sediment filters for less then 1k.

Tom_133

Thanks for the help all, thats exactly what I thought on the size of the unit. That large building mostly has the black sludge from an old system. It was never flushed when it was upgraded to PK aluminum boilers, and recently I put ECM pumps in and found the sludge. So I mentioned to them 5 months ago they need to flush, they just got back to me to do it. Well it will be a nasty job, but someone has to do it. Thanks again