Back in the day

I carried out my first flushing on the ACL Atlantic Conveyor in 1984. The merchant ship, requisitioned by the British Government as a supply vessel, was lost (with 12 lives) during the Falklands conflict in May 1982. Swan Hunter (shipbuilders) Ltd built the replacement and I was given the job, as a young engineer, to calculate the quantity of hydraulic fluid needed to fill and flush the hydraulic deck moving systems.

Thousands of litres of hydraulic fluid was needed and once pumped into the system the flushing process started; the debris filters had to be cleaned every 2 hours and the hydraulic fluid reached a temperature of 120°c the process lasted for 4 weeks, day and night!!

Present day

Forward wind 35 years and I have today carried out my first solar flushing, repair and repressurising operation at a residential property in Newcastle. This time only 40 litres of flushing fluid was needed and the process only took 2 hours.

Problems in the home

The client noticed the appearance of a pink stain on one of the bedroom ceilings and then discovered, after venturing into the loft, that a leaky joint was the culprit.

He call Boiler Bee and we took a look 👀. The system had lost its pressure and an unknown quantity of glycol ( the pink liquid). We quoted to flush the system to remove the air and repressurise the system after fixing the leak and setting the expansion vessels.

This was all done and the system reset, the controls explained to the customer and some advice given on how to maintain the other elements of the system.

So just like the new Atlantic Conveyor in 1985, I’m sure the system will have many years of service from now on.