Magnabooster?????

[FiTay]

Hi All, I've joined your forum to find out about central heating filters; mainly as British Gas is trying to sell me one, installed, for around £200. It's a Magnabooster but I don't know if it's any good or not, so joined here to try and find out.

Cheers,
:confused5:

 

[villa_tom]

Magnabooster are a great bot of kit. Especially if you have a new boiler as it will stop particles of sludge etc entering your boiler and causing damage. Its up to you weather you have it or not but I wouldn't fit a new boiler without one. If your boiler is on its last legs then its a different story as sludge may already be in your systema and it won't do any good fitting a maganbooster as you'd have to have a flush first to cleanse the water.

It all depends on circumstance really

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

Id say there really good, in my opinion every system should have one

 

[FD Powerflow]

Are you two on about the same piece of kit? the brass unit with the tiny capture bit at the bottom not much cop in my opinion and have fitted them as a subcontractor for Warmfront, have one Worcester and one Ideal that broke down after a year thanks to the custard removing rads to redecorate and the magnabooster had filled to capacity (about a thimble full)?

FiTay what I would say is that the fitting of a filter is the right way to protect your system and most boiler manufacturers will recommend the installation of one to protect your investment, however the TF1 and Magnaclean are much better pieces of kit in my opinion and the general market price for installation of one of these alongside the right cleaning agent and inhibitor would be around the £150-£200 plus vat so be safe in the knowledge that your not being ripped off by the sounds of it.

 

[armourer]

I must admit, I was reading this as Magnaclean.

 

[GrahamM]

Got to agree with FD Powerflow. The Magnabooster is a quality unit made in brass, but in my opinion it does not work. I have serviced many a boiler with these fitted and have noticed little or no crud caught by this.
On the other hand there is the Magnaclean. Quite a cheap made, less durable, plastic unit, but this does what it says on the tin. They are a lot more indicative in their design of the crud they catch and I can say for a fact-they do work!

 

[FiTay]

Magnabooster are a great bot of kit. Especially if you have a new boiler as it will stop particles of sludge etc entering your boiler and causing damage. Its up to you weather you have it or not but I wouldn't fit a new boiler without one. If your boiler is on its last legs then its a different story as sludge may already be in your systema and it won't do any good fitting a maganbooster as you'd have to have a flush first to cleanse the water.

It all depends on circumstance really

Our system was installed 9 years ago; they don't flush the system before installation, only drain it as far as required to take the pressure off to fit the filter. Is it, therefore, not worthwhile getting them to do it?

 

[cogale]

If you compare the magnabooster and the magnaclean the two products work in completely different ways.  The m/c attracts wet sludge so you have a lot more evidence and you get chunkier bits of steel coming out on the magnet.  The m/b has a spirotube (basically makes a vortex) which the dirt falls down through the centre of.  It also has a filter that breaks down the sludge as it passes through.  So, when you clean a m/c you see lots of lovely sludge, when you clean a m/b you get very fine powder that is hard to see.  The 'magna' part of the booster is something added by spirotech on behalf of british gas basically as they used the magnacleans in the past.  Plus you can show customers with a demo jar how the magnet works, whereas in fact, the spirotech filters work well without them.  Spirotech make industrial filters and have done so for years, quality bits of kit in my opinion.  When I spoke to their rep, they'd had no warranty returns and offer a 20 year guarantee on the product, Adey offer 2 years on the m/c, the seals fail and the lids pop off...

Filter on system is good, won't fix anything but is a good long term preventative measure.  As others have said, if the system's sludged up it's pointless, get it flushed then fit one.

Or if the boiler's old and parts are unavailable and you're thinking about replacing it, get it done with the new boiler.

I'd advise checking how well the radiators heat up as to work out if they're blocked or restricted and then if they work ok, go for the booster... just my opinion anyway

 

[FD Powerflow]

Not doubting their commercial range cogale, just their domestic range, my son who works for BG hasn';t had any leaks with magnabooster, but whats the point in fitting it is you need the customer to drain the sludge out every 5 mins?

 

[WHPES]

You will always pay a premium to have anything done by British Gas because of their commission.

 

[Rossi46]

The magnaleak aka magnaclean is the saunier duval of the filter Market; crap. The magnabooster however is worth every penny.

 

[cogale]

If you imagine if you have a load of sand filled with water and then drain all the water out, the total volume of the sand is less. This is how the magnaclean and the magnabooster differ. The magnabooster does remove slightly less sludge that is true but the difference isn't as much as you seem to think. The magnaclean removes up to 290g of wet sludge and the magnabooster removes 200g of dry sludge. The water does make a fair difference and I think the magnaclean comes out on top overall on weight (by a small margin) but they are more prone to trouble. The magnabooster has much less to go wrong so it's my choice everytime, it's a misunderstanding of how the product works that causes the issues. The magnabooster is more versatile as it can be installed anywhere as well, obviously the return is the more ideal place but you can't put a magnaclean on the flow of the appliance.

 

[GrahamM]

If you imagine if you have a load of sand filled with water and then drain all the water out, the total volume of the sand is less. This is how the magnaclean and the magnabooster differ. The magnabooster does remove slightly less sludge that is true but the difference isn't as much as you seem to think. The magnaclean removes up to 290g of wet sludge and the magnabooster removes 200g of dry sludge. The water does make a fair difference and I think the magnaclean comes out on top overall on weight (by a small margin) but they are more prone to trouble. The magnabooster has much less to go wrong so it's my choice everytime, it's a misunderstanding of how the product works that causes the issues. The magnabooster is more versatile as it can be installed anywhere as well, obviously the return is the more ideal place but you can't put a magnaclean on the flow of the appliance.

"The proof is in the pudding". I have cleaned many of each. I have examined the flushing water of magnabooster on a number of occasions and found very little in way of metallic particles or residue. I have cleaned magnacleans fitted on newish systems and found the filter/magnet covered in metallic particles.
I have read/watched and understood all the bumf about how the magnabooster work it is a solid durable looking unit but I am just not convinced of its claimed benefits.
The magnacleans may be a less durable unit, but I know for a fact they do the job.

 

[FD Powerflow]

No offence Cogale but how can a magnabooster remove "dry" sludge when it works on a basic fluid dynamic principle that particles suspended in water will lose inertia by hitting each other or a physical barrier? Fluid dynamics, suprisingly enough needs fluid. It sounds like you work for BG and have been sold the dream on the magnabooster by a salesman. It may well do a good job but the few that Ive been back to haven't and each time ive fitted a TF1 or magnaclean the visual advantage of being able to show the custard the sludge on the magnet makes all the difference.

 

[RoryD]

Hi All, I've joined your forum to find out about central heating filters; mainly as British Gas is trying to sell me one, installed, for around £200. It's a Magnabooster but I don't know if it's any good or not, so joined here to try and find out.

Cheers,
:confused5:

If you're going to be mistrusting of your Contracted Service Providers you have to go elsewhere mate

 

[cogale]

I did speak to their sales rep that is true. And I agree that the magnaclean and TF1 do provide a much better amount of visible evidence compared to the magnabooster but they have had 2 independent tests where the magnabooster has proved to do a good job. Yes, the solid particles suspended in the water need the water to cause the particles to drop to the bottom of the unit but this separates the particles from the water whereas the magnaclean doesn't do the same thing.

As I've said though, the magnaclean and TF1 do provide a much better amount of evidence which will please the customer no end

No offence taken, everyone has their opinions and this is why there are forums to express them.

 

[Henchman76]

I have been very impressed with the performance of the magnaclean. Its self evident when you remove the magnet just how effective it is for drawing impurities out even after you have throughly flushed through and treated any given system. Personally I havent had any body or seal defects that would cause a leak but if it were to occur I still wouldnt turn my back on the product itself because it performs so well overall.

 

[racine]

When I had a new boiler installed for our gas central heating last year I also had a Magnabooster fitted. It's about due for its next clean and I have just one concern: when I open the valve to flush out the dirt the system will top up the water by taking in more water from the header tank. There's a possibility that this water will not be clean, and I'm concerned in case this dirt gets deposited in the pipework (we have the accursed microbore) before the magnabooster has a chance to remove it. So my question is, please, which is the greater risk: cleaning the filter and possibly drawing dirty water into the system, or not cleaning the filter which might be full and therefore no longer removing contaminant?

I think I should have posted this as a new thread to have a chance of being read, so I'll do that now.