I pay just over £81 for mine and it can be installed in an hour, average price for a heating engineer around here is about £50 an hour, plumbers would be cheaper but not all will work on heating systems. London would be double or more per hour.

Has your Nan been on BG's Homecare plan for years?  It's quite possible that she does or will soon need a power power flush. The sludge in system may have formed because corrosion inhibitor wasn't put in the system initially, nor was the level checked annually. This isn't something that BG do as part of the Homecare plan. BG like to give the impression that their plan covers everything you need to do to maintain your heating system in top condition but it doean't.

Having said that... You normally only need a power flush on very heavilly sludged system. If the system is working and all rads are getting hot an ordinary flush (perhaps repeated) might do the job for a lot less money.

Can a magnaclean cope with a system that already has a lot of sludge int it?

If it does need power flushing you should shop around and get quotes. You might find someone to do it for a heck of a lot less than £700. Perhaps as low as £200-300.

Remember to put corrosion inhibitor  (eg Fernox F1) back in after refilling

Google GB Power flush and read up. There are other ways to clean the system...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=155334

I've no experience with this company but just as an example..

http://www.powerflushuk.com/mission.htm

Quote:


More on Homecare: Be aware that the plan requires you to pay for the first power flush if they say you need one BUT you don't have to get BG to do it. If you get someone else to do it keep the reciept and send a copy to BG. They should still continue to provide cover AND I believe they should do the next power flush for free (if it ever requires one which it shouldn't really if you keep the corrosion inhibitor topped up). Read the small print of the Homecare plan.

Is the BG guy doing it as a BG job or as a private job?

would only do the

I have bought a Fernox TF1 to fit on my system, it does the same as the Magnaclean but it also has a cyclone to catch non-magnetic bits.
Same price too.

thescruff wrote on Feb 12^th, 2010, 3:30pm:

Why?
There is not much in the way of comparisons because the TF1 has only been out a couple of months.
We compared the magnets on the demo models and the TF1 magnet was much stronger than the Magnaclean magnet
The cyclonic "trap" is used successfully in dust extraction in air systems so I figured it would be a nice feature in a wet system.

http://www.fernox.com/?cccpage=Total_Filter_TF1&sub=10

That may be true Zambezi, but there's a lot of bad press about them already.

Not large enough catchment area, and a pig to clean, including next to impossible to get all the muck out.

Sorry the Magnaclean wins every time, even over the twintech.