Ageing system, maintenance & pump

[Drained]

Hello All
My house is 15 years old, Ideal FF370 boiler, plastic 10mm pipe, Wilo Gold 60 pump (16 radiators including several small ones). Inhibitor was put in 15 years ago. Since then, nothing. Never been drained.
The only maintenance has been replaced bearings on the boiler fan, replaced actuators on zone valves and 2 boiler services (if it ain't broke, don't fix it).

Anyway, this winter a few radiators have been slow to heat.
Yesterday morning I cleaned the F&E tank. It only had a thin layer of orange dust. No sludge. I then put in 2 litres of Sentinel X400 cleaner and I'm leaving it for a few weeks.

The pump has always been on setting 2, but yesterday afternoon I put it onto 3 and that caused the cooler rads to heat up better.

The pump isn't particularly noisy. It's probably noisier than it used to be, but if the 3 setting makes a big difference then perhaps it's getting weak.

Bearing in mind the F&E tank was fairly clean, I'm not expecting a lot of sludge in the system. Or am I wrong ? I'm cleaning and draining / flushing it anyway.

So, the pump is not noisy, but 15 years old and maybe not as muscular as it was once ... Would it be sensible to replace the pump when I drain in a few weeks ? Have I had my money's worth from this Wilo pump ?

I'm looking forward to hearing the voice of experience

 

[snowhead]

Quite often old is better.

However you've disturbed the equilibrium, so pound to a penny your reliable old pump is going to fail soon.

If it was my own system I'd buy a new pump, but not fit it till the old one fails.

 

[snowhead]

...

 

[joni os]

To ensure X400 circulates, tie up ballcock in F&E. Drain off water at low point of system into bucket.Discard first bucket full and recirculate the next two by pouring back into F&E tank.
When fully flushing system ensure valves either side of pump close properly, so pump can be easily replaced when necessary.

 

[joni os]

To ensure X400 circulates, tie up ballcock in F&E. Drain off water at low point of system into bucket.Discard first bucket full and recirculate the next two by pouring back into F&E tank.
When fully flushing system ensure valves either side of pump close properly, so pump can be easily replaced when necessary.

 

[jonnyswamp]

Good advice above, only 2 services in 15 yrs?

 

[Drained]

Good point about the valves. They are proper taps I can put a spanner on and they definitely turn freely.

I think I'm leaning towards a new pump so I'll probably replace it when the system is drained in a few weeks.

 

[finchy01]

15 year old system still running on speed 2? That's good. Nearly every pump see is on speed 3. Side note though. A boiler service is just to check all is OK and more importantly safe. I'm guessing it's had 2 services as there was a problem (this would thenot be a breakdown not a service). It's a small price to pay to check for safety running of you boiler. If you do choose not to have it serviced then so be it. The one thing I would ask is that you at the very least invest in an audible co detector. Best of luck with you flush. Make sure to add more inhibitor when you receive fill.