I've had one of these but the earlier version that used plastic threads on metal compression fittings. Consequently it was a pain to seal and after a few years became a pain to service as the seals kept breaking from the force of removing the service cap until I was left with no thread on the plastic body of the unit to attach to the metal fittings boiler side. So I just bypassed it. It took some metal filings out when I was able to use it the first few years, but not an enormous amount. Cheers, Ian, Birmingham
All the videos from Charlie now watched these past 2-3 weeks while I've been ripping out and patching up dado rails with easyfill 60...this particular video gave me confidence to have a peek at my worcester bosch magnet filter myself. It was serviced in December and was apparently very clean. Wasn't a lie, it was clean as a whistle now in June, the water inside was crystal clear, apparently a sign of a good quality power flush. I can cross one worry off my list.
Great video! I’ve seen a few other comments saying the same, we already had one on our system but I had no idea it was serviceable. I’ll tackle this tomorrow now and give it a dose of inhibitor too. Fabulous content, and really invaluable to people like me.
God bless! Perfect video Charlie I've just cleaned my filter after watching your video! We bought our place 4 years ago and it was always there just under our boiler! I knew it was a filter of some sort but I've never thought you have to clean it ! Anyhow now all done to my surprise it was quite clean ! Again thanks for the informative video!
So glad to hear you find out useful. That's great news. Means you've got a squeeky clean system. I always think it speaks fathoms about your predecessors that they had a Magnaclean installed. Shows they cared about this sort of stuff and were on top of maintenance.
An enjoyable clear tutorial. Very interesting to me as I am about to service my magnaclean, which I suspect hasn't been cleaned since it was fitted with the new boiler 7 years ago.
ive cleaned my magnaclean for last for last 3 years then added inhibertor this year the magnaclean was spotless infect i checked to see if it was still magnectic ! well worth having
great video Charlie and just the prompt I needed. I had been putting off doing this task as I couldn't quite remember the process described by the plumber. Wish I could upload the pic of the black gunk, now removed. Many thanks for another truly useful & informative web video. :)
Thanks CG. Yes, and it's the perfect time of year to be installing it. I'll add the install video to the list. Suffice to say if you know how to drain down your system that's the only tricky bit (unless yours already has isolation valves). You just need a pipe cutter and some spanners and away you go.
Have an early one of these . After a few years the isolating valve were rock solid and couldn't be operated. Prob a good idea to exercise them in future...
Was wondering why you looked so familiar, then I realised that I'd watched your carpet cleaner review :) I'm now thinking about George or a Bissell on the basis of that review! This was even better! Hope you venture into heat pump territory one day as would be great to know your thoughts on that in future. Thanks for sharing quality content!
Thanks buddy 👍 So my father in law borrowed that Vax and immediately broke it (he is heavy handed but it serves to illustrate what rubbish it is). He snapped a small piece of plastic off that keeps the vacuum standing upright, so now it just flops over every time you stop using it, unless you lean it against the wall. I'd say hands down George for most spot cleaning jobs, but for whole carpets possibly the Bissell. Trawl down through the comments to my video as there are some great recommendations. For plumbing vids, James at Plumberparts is awesome (knows much more about plumbing than I do). ru-vid.com
Hi. I have a question 🤔. The scale filter. Should it be connected to the hot pipe. Or the cold pipe. 🥶.. ? Your video explains everything nice and clear. THANKS.
It's connected to the central heating system which runs the radiators. It's a continuous pipe goes from the boiler through all the radiators and then back into the boiler and you install it on the (return) pipe that goes back into the boiler.
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Yes Chris. Dosing your system is one of the best uses for this. You can't quite fit a whole container in though - thought I'd mention this as I've over filled mine once or twice!
@@plumberparts Definitely. Happy to drop by plumberparts HQ or your local pub if it's open by then! I'll drop you a line. If you see this comment, you can also ping me an email at charliediyte@gmail.com, to get things started.
Thanks for this, I have the same unit which is due for a clean. The only problem is the chap who installed it took the spanner with him! Is it possible to tighten by hand? My grips aren't quite wide enough...
Hi Charlie. Apologies if this is already covered in the video or comments but what would you say to someone who didn't feel confident enough to install it themselves? I've done basic plumbing stuff in the past but not sure I'd fancy doing this one. I'm thinking I might get our local gas engineer to fit it. For them it's likely quite a quick and easy job and hence wouldn't be very costly. Then we then use it to clear out the system and service the device from then on. It's the thought of draining then cutting those pipes and fitting that I'm not sure I'm up for. Did you ever release the install video. I'll take a look at some install vids first. Have you heard what heating engineers think of the MagnaClean? Cheers Charlie 👍
Hi Neil, that's fair enough and I've a few friends that take your approach. Yes, get someone in to install it for you. The heating engineers and plumbers all think Magnacleans are fantastic. Definitely get one installed - it's a peace of mind thing. Depending on the size of your system you might need the larger one (as a friend of mine did).
@@CharlieDIYte Thanks Charlie. Sounds like a plan. We don't have a big house. It's a three bed semi, with small rooms, 9 rads and a tenth in a small conservatory that never really gets used above the frost setting on the TRV. I'll definitely see about getting one fitted. I noticed 'PlumberParts' did a great vid on the 'MagnaCleanse' contrasting it with the risks of pressurising during a full 'power flush' setup. Am I right in thinking you could effectively do the initial 'cleaning' process with just the MagnaClean? I suppose you would have to leave the cleaner in for a few weeks, use an SDS drill on the rads and then drain the whole system, refill and then add the inhibitor? I guess I'll ask the MagnaClean folks, and our engineer. Cheers Charlie!
@@neil9505 Yes you can do a huge amount yourself - that's exactly what you'd do and if you were able to agitate the radiators, even better! For example here, every time I've done some plumbing work upstairs I've pretty much drained down the whole of the upstairs. And when I installed the Magnaclean, I took the opportunity to drain the downstairs too - not so easy as some radiators were on their own loop back up to the circuit upstairs so had to be drained individually - whereas In able to pretty much drain the whole of the upstairs from a drain off on one of the radiator downstairs. If you do this you're effectively flushing the system - or removing a lot of sludge from it at any rate. The Magnaclean comes with a pot of system cleaner which has to be flushed out 28 days after adding it. Then the inhibitor goes in and prevents sludge build up going forward. It has a huge effect. The water used to come out of my rads black but it's now pretty crystal clear. The Magnaclean itself operates as a dosing pot to add the inhibitor to the system with. The only thing you have to be careful with, with old systems is being too thorough with the cleaning as it can cause pinholing in old pipes, I'm told.
@@CharlieDIYte Wow. Great stuff. Now I need to do a search for videos on how to drain a central heating system. :-) Our system dates from the 1990s (timber framed semi detached, non pressurised, gravity fed, with non condensing boiler and hot water cylinder. and I think it'll still be pretty sound. Good prompt though for something to be aware of though re' the pin holes. We've never changed the boiler as we 'didn't know how long we'd be in the house' aaaaaaaand, fast forward 14 years and we are still here :-)))
Nice to see you again! I got interested in trying one of this filters. I have just a mesh filter in the circuit that only catch midsize particles. ( but is veryyyy cheap 😂) There is also another type of filter that is filled with safe chemicals which reduces the dissolved calcium salts. I have been using this type for about 3 years. Calcium salts dissolved in water(generally but not scientifically referred to as TDS) create most problems in small boilers. These boilers have thin heat converter pipes inside and when the water is heated, solid calcium salt builds up and clogges the pipes.
Sounds to me like both the cleaner and the Magnaclean are doing their jobs. The cleaner loosened up all the crud which has worked its way through to the magnet. The fact that you're still getting significant build up suggests there is still a significant amount of residual particulate in your rads and pipes.
Exactly Mr President. Could do with a power flush but this is managing the build up in the system quite nicely and provides a good dosing point for the inhibitor.
Do I need to take any special pre-cautions with a pressurised system? Should I de-pressurise first? I know my system contains an inhibitor and I am concerned that I will dilute it by de and re - pressurising
It depends on what you're doing Ben. If you're just cleaning the filter, you can top up the pressure after, but it won't reduce the pressure much or substantially dilute the amount of inhibitor you've got in there.
Your diagram shows at 057 the filter is after the boiler...it should be placed before the boiler to filter the crap out of the system before it hits the heat exchanger...no compromise... mine is next to my cylinder...just before the boiler.
It's a good opportunity to pour in some inhibitor, but failing that you simply screw the cap back in and then open the valves and open the bleed valve until water squirts out - then you know it's full. You just have to remember then to top up the pressure if you've got a pressurised system.
Yes you do, because the magnetite forms in new pipes as well as old. It's considered good practice to install one of these on all new central heating systems.
@@CharlieDIYte I'm tight on cash and plan to sell in the next 5-7 years. Is it still worth it? Without one am I breaking the entire system or does the magnetic material just accumulate in the pump? If I service every year do I need one?
@@CharlieDIYteif you Google the product leaking is very common. I have 5 replacement seals at the ready and when repaired used silicone grease. Added a Google calendar reminder every 2 years for seal change.
Magna clean is no substitute for a well flushed and inhibited system. If your systems clean the magna cleans a waste of money. It never protected any boiler ever. Calling it a filter is a lie. It's cheaper to flush properly than fit a magnet in a pot. They aren't terrible but are not necessary either. Spend your time flushing properly instead of wasting money on a magnaclean.
This is easily one of the best Magnaclean service videos on RU-vid Charlie! shown & explained in a clear concise manner you even showed how to service the lid seal properly & silicon grease which is NOT clearly shown on some other videos on RU-vidBy so-called ‘professionals’. Well done top marks!
New sub very recently (noob wanting to make a wardrobe case and garage storage) and as a result bought my circular saw today. A YT tip which I'm sure you know anyway but as well as encouraging comments, you could also add a poll within the video to gauge people's interest in "would you like to see a video on this" or whatever which they can action there and then as they watch it. it not only helps you with content and feedback but also, the YT algorithm sees it as additional "engagement" so bonus points in terms of becoming more recommended. And a thumb down to the algorithm is exactly the same as the thumb up they hold the same value. As a viewer to videos I'll always do a poll as it makes me feel like the person I'm watching cares about what I think. Thanks again, I'm so glad I found this channel, I'm off to continue ploughing through your backlog and remind myself what I need to screw stuff into bricks.
Good to hear from you mate, and thanks so much for subscribing 👍 To be totally honest I hadn't really appreciated that you could run poll cards in videos, but it looks like they were discontinued after 10 June 2020 as apparently it was a feature people didn't use very often (probably because, like me, most creators didn't know about them!) As you plough through my backlog, please accept my apologies for the cheesy music that blighted all my early videos. All part of the learning curve, but the music was a big error! If you need any advice, or in fact, if there are any videos you think you'd find useful, drop me a line at charliediyte@gmail.com, as I get so many comments, yours can quickly get buried. Thanks again for the comment.
@@CharlieDIYte hey.....I like 'terrible music' so my parents used to tell me! That's such a lovely response thank you. And now I've learned polls are not happening anymore. I liked them! I'll be sticking around for sure!
I would find the added video useful as I enjoy all the hard work you put in to making these videos. Also the the fact that I learn a lot from them adds to it all as well. So please keep up the hard work and please add the installation video. Cheers mate.
Thanks, didn't even know I had one of these, cleaned it out for the first time in the 5 years I've lived here and had less sludge than your 6 months. Also really useful as I had just changed a radiator and was trying to work out the best way to add inhibitor!
Good informative piece. Since we have been in this house for 2 years, I guess that my filter will be in dire need of a service. I was actually brought here looking for info on magnetic feedwater conditioners. I am sorry to say, that I did not know the function of this component in my system.
Thanks Alan. Glad you found it useful when though it wasn't what you were looking for! It might not be too clogged up - depends how well the system has been flushed and inhibited in the past.
@@CharlieDIYte It was not too clogged, there was a small black oxide build up. Good inhibitor dosing by the look of it. The whole device was stained with red rust though. The only problem was that the chamber would not release from the inline piece. That did not hamper the clean, but it was very firmly stuck. Thanks again in any case, system is clean and tidy again.
Hi Charlie. Another awesome vid, thank you so much for hard work on these. Do you think there's any benefit to using this on a system that's 5 years old, on a new build? The system was installed with Sentinel inhibitor and after a partial flush about two years ago during a boiler service, I topped up the inhibitor using the Sentinel Rapid Dose kit via the fill loop.
Thanks. Yes, all new heating systems should have these installed ideally, as you'll get some debris even with the inhibitor, and the added benefit is that you've then got easy access for testing inhibitor levels and adding more if required. Remember, my system was effectively new too, albeit 10 years old now.
Hi Fqlynx, As a heating engineer I agree that one of these are an absolute must. All new boilers being installed now will say in the installation manual that a magnetic filter should be installed. Each boiler manufacturer will have their preferred filter brand or they will even insist on their own brand of filter. If your installer don't install the correct one, it may even invalidate the manufacturer's extended warranty. This just shows how important the manufacturers feel these are. Older systems can definitely do with a filter.
No but I've done a lot of work moving radiators and stuff over the last few years ago pretty much drained the whole system down after putting the cleaner in and dosed it with inhibitor afterwards.
I haven't serviced my central heating for at least 10 years. I was worried before, but am terrified now! 😧 It's September and I'm in Northern Scotland, so I need to get onto it pronto! 😬
Should be plenty of videos on that online Duncan eg Search for "how to drain down a central heating system" in RU-vid and two PlumberParts videos come up - depending on whether you've got a gravity or like me, a pressurised system. What I did was a fairly laborious process of draining the system down completely, including each individual radiator at its drain off valve which probably drained down about 95% of the water, and I then refilled it with fresh.