Boiler failure highlights importance of water treatment
Following the failure of a heat exchanger just a few months after a new boiler was installed in a secondary school in the north west of England, Sentinel Commercial was called in. Analysis of water samples revealed that the new heating system had not been pre-cleaned before adding inhibitors — resulting in debris being suspended in the system water.
In addition, the chemical inhibitor was of poor quality and unable to protect many of the metals in the system, especially aluminium, leading to significant corrosion of components.
Ian Barnes, Head of Sentinel Commercial explains, ‘Modern condensing boilers utilise metals of high thermal efficiency, such as aluminium. To maintain the integrity and efficiency of boilers and heating components, systems must be treated with high-quality, chemicals approved by the boiler manufacturer that protect all heating system metals. Additionally, a best-practice process of cleaning a system, adding the correct inhibitor, and maintaining a system through regular water quality checks must be followed.
Sentinel’s remedial recommendations included replacing the heat exchanger, flushing of the system with Sentinel X400, the addition of Sentinel X100 liquid inhibitor, and ongoing protection monitoring using Sentinel’s online water sample analysis service, SystemCheck.
