power flush?

[babalicious]

just had a leak in one of our radiators, it had rusted at the bottom! call out british gas ( i have insurance with them) and they are going to replace the radiator but he said it looks like your going to need a powerflush, which i am NOT covered for! He said they do it about �550. just if i could get it any cheaper or is this standard, any help would be gratefully appriciated as i just dont have �550 laying around!

[buildersmate]

This sounds like a variation of the well-known scam of blocked drains, for which the universal answer is 'You need it powerflushed, mate'.
There are various chemicals available that can be temporarily added to the CH system to loosen / dissolve sediment. They work by using the CH pump to circulate them around the system whilst it is operating - they are left in there for a few hours before the whole system is flushed out with clean water, then new inhibitor put in.
Try talking to a local plumber and see how much he'd want.
The idea of putting a high pressure pump onto the system is ridiculous.

[arburgirl]

why dont you just ring up a local heating engineer or two out of the yellow pages and just ask how much they would charge, you'll probably see how much the difference is that the gas board try to rip you off for.

[gasman]

Buildersmate is spot on, but in the unlikley event you do need to power flush an average price is around 50pound per rad. 7 rads 350 pound etc...

[VannaB]

I got the old Powerflush line from British Gas when I bought a boiler with them last year.
The saleman said it was impossible to fit the boiler without the Powerflush so I had to go along with it. Even though the radiators were only 9 years old, so hardly full of cr*p.

Think the salesman was though! I was conned! Made no difference whatsoever!