Flow restriction from magnaclean/tf1

[on31ll]

Got a customer who loves to read the internet and research everything and he has asked me to fit a magnaclean to his central heating! Simple yes ! But he is saying to me he has read that the magna clean is the best for magnetic but no good for non magnetic crap ! So he wants a mangna clean and after that a tf1 fitted ! Other than flow restrictions any issues ? I have talked and talked to my hearts content about this but he is set on this !

[ADEY]

If your customer is particularly concerned with non magnetic debris you could recommend that you install a MagnaClean TwinTech. MagnaClean TwinTech can be installed on any central heating system and, as the name suggests, possesses exceptionally powerful magnetic and non-magnetic filtration characteristics. TwinTech is available in 22mm black and is ADEY's most advanced, high capacity filter. From our experience MagnaClean TwinTech is the perfect partner for central heating systems that have specific problems with non-magnetic debris. It's also particularly well suited for open-vented systems; where plastic pipework is fitted or underfloor heating. Central heating systems of this nature tend to have more problems and a higher volume of non-magnetic debris in suspension. In order to achieve the best protection for the boiler, we recommend that MagnaClean TwinTech is fitted between the last radiator and the boiler.

[petercj]

I've got a Magna-Booster that seems to work well and does what it says on the can.

I can see why the Magna Clean would be better for attracting magnetite due to the larger magnet, but then as magnetite is magnetic anyway, most of it will stay in the bottom of metal radiators.

As the Magna-Booster pulls out the relatively small amount of magnetite that does get into suspension, and also other debris, with the filter being by-passed if becoming blocked, it seems a good choice to me.

Paid £50 for it on ebay - new, boxed , etc. Managed to negotiate carriage inclusive for that too.

Bloke said I was a hard man to deal with, but gave me good feedback anyway!

[on31ll]

I never thought of the twin tech ! Ive actually fitted one to a friends but never thought of it to tell the customer ! Im sure he will settle for the twintech

[petercj]

I was told by someone at BG that they stop fitting MagnaClean because they had trouble with them and now fit MagnaBooster.

I don't have any long-term experience of either, but the MagnaBooster is very solid and well made, and seems to be working well. It's only been on a short while.

A good efficiency test would be to fit both in a return pipe and see if the one nearest the boiler picked up magnetite/debris that was missed by the first in line - swapping around to test the efficiency of both units.

Could do the same with the Tf1.

[SafeGasInstall]

Got a customer who loves to read the internet and research everything and he has asked me to fit a magnaclean to his central heating! Simple yes ! But he is saying to me he has read that the magna clean is the best for magnetic but no good for non magnetic crap ! So he wants a mangna clean and after that a tf1 fitted ! Other than flow restrictions any issues ? I have talked and talked to my hearts content about this but he is set on this !

For best result offer to customer manual flush + power flush + magna clean !

[petercj]

Or better still, fit new radiators throughout, and leave a Magna Cleanse permanently installed with a tf1 on the return!

Can't be too careful with these small bore heat exchangers.

[GrahamM]

Got a customer who loves to read the internet and research everything and he has asked me to fit a magnaclean to his central heating! Simple yes ! But he is saying to me he has read that the magna clean is the best for magnetic but no good for non magnetic crap ! So he wants a mangna clean and after that a tf1 fitted ! Other than flow restrictions any issues ? I have talked and talked to my hearts content about this but he is set on this !

At the end of the day the customer is always right.
You have advised. I can't see it causing any great problems, but if it does the customer wants it that way.
Take the cash and do the job.

I was told by someone at BG that they stop fitting MagnaClean because they had trouble with them and now fit MagnaBooster.

I don't have any long-term experience of either, but the MagnaBooster is very solid and well made, and seems to be working well. It's only been on a short while.

A good efficiency test would be to fit both in a return pipe and see if the one nearest the boiler picked up magnetite/debris that was missed by the first in line - swapping around to test the efficiency of both units.

Could do the same with the Tf1.

Correct.
I have come across dozens that are leaking and a load where the magnet shears off just bellow the cap and no more than few years old.
Magna cleans are junk but in their defense, I do believe they work slightly better than the magna boosters.

[petercj]

At the end of the day the customer is always right.
You have advised. I can't see it causing any great problems, but if it does the customer wants it that way.
Take the cash and do the job.

Correct.
I have come across dozens that are leaking and a load where the magnet shears off just bellow the cap and no more than few years old.
Magna cleans are junk but in their defense, I do believe they work slightly better than the magna boosters.

Do you think the magnet in the Magna Booster is too weak?

Vaillant engineer told me that the majority of restricted heat exchangers he sees can be linked to opening up the system and debris being downloaded from the header tank, or debris entering the system when opened up in some other way.

Which suggests that having a filter that will catch non-magnetic debris as well is essential.

As the majority of magnetite created in rads is going to settle in the bottom of the radiator it comes from, I've wondered whether the larger magnet in the MagnaClean might be over-kill.

My first thought when considering the MagnaBooster was whether it could cause flow problems if the filter becomes full, but the manufacturer's claim the flow will just by-pass the filter if it becomes restricted. This really was my first priority, i.e. that the MB could do no harm, and that it can easily be drained. The second criterion was that it should filter out non-metalic debris; the third factor being that the magnet should be strong enough to filter out the magnetite as it passes through. The main function being to protect the boiler, not to keep the system free of magnetite, which I can't see the MagnaClean doing anyway, bearing in mind the fact that most of it will stay in the bottom of the rads, and be kept to the minimum by chemical inhibitor anyway.

I've got MagnaBooster 2, and I see that MB3 has got a bigger magnet attached to the outside - so I've wondered if that suggests that the magnet in MB2 is a tad weak for the job. Or have they done it in an attempt to counter the advertising play MagnaClean have put on their larger magnet size - which on this forum seems to have worked quite well, although the Tf1 seems quite popular too. I've not laid hands on a Tf1, but from what I can make of it the magnet is unlikely to be any bigger than the MB2. From what I've read on here, the marketing of the Tf1 is pretty intense, with offers of chemicals thrown in, etc. Plus, I suppose Fernox is a well established and trusted brand, and what they produce generally is all about system cleansing and maintenance, and maybe that causes people to put faith in the Tf1 rather than the MB.

I do like the solid feel of the MB, and also the look of it. In that respect I think it stands ahead of the rest. Although of course the most important thing is whether it does the job it was made to do.

Which remains to be seen in the longer term.

[SafeGasInstall]

Omg it is a filter only ..... clean your rads +power flush them + Inhibitor .
This is not some sort of supper dupper engineering product , it is designed to try and to extend the live of boiler / system that is all !!!

[petercj]

Omg it is a filter only ..... clean your rads +power flush them + Inhibitor .
This is not some sort of supper dupper engineering product , it is designed to try and to extend the live of boiler / system that is all !!!

More to extend the life of the boiler than the rest of the system perhaps.

If the MB and Tf1 magnets are adequate for removing the magnetite from the water returning to the boiler, then the MagnaClean "size matters" argument falls down.

A filter might not be a super-dupper piece of engineering, but if Rolls Royce were to build a car with no filters on the fuel lines it would be regarded as incompetence, and telling their customers that they should clean their fuel tanks out more often would be to add insult to injury.

Gods knows what the design engineers at Vaillant are thinking of by not building a filter into their boilers with small bore heat exchangers. A cynical view might say that they sell more heat exchangers by not doing so, but at a huge cost to their reputation as being one of the top manufacturer's of boilers.

Personally, I think modern boilers are quite impressive, watching the Vaillant engineer put the boiler into diagnostic mode and seeing the information he was able to access was very interesting.

But how the intelligence that created such a piece of equipment manages to leave the ship vulnerable for a ha'porth of tar beats me, i.e. a highly sophisticate piece of technology gets bolted on to a crude system with no protection from the hazards that are commonly found in that system.

[jam1979]

u could also try the spirotech filter theyre supposed to be very good