Heating Pipes Exclusive — Blocked Central

It started subtly. The living room radiator was lukewarm at the top but ice cold at the bottom. Then, the bedroom radiator went completely cold. The final straw was the boiler pressure dropping daily and the pipes making a sound like a boiling kettle. The giveaway? When I turned the heating on, one pipe to a radiator stayed stone cold while the other was hot.

£850 powerflush + £150 pipe replacement. Alternative cost if I’d ignored it: A new boiler (£3k+) when the heat exchanger cracked from the pressure. blocked central heating pipes

When my plumber cut out the affected section of 15mm copper pipe, it wasn’t empty. It was 90% full of a solid, tar-like black paste. You couldn’t push water through it with a garden hose. This didn't happen overnight—it took 15 years of no system maintenance. It started subtly

I learned the hard way that central heating pipes don’t block with ice—they block with magnetite sludge (black iron oxide). Over time, oxygen in the water corrodes steel radiators and iron pipes. This creates a black, muddy sludge that circulates. It settles in low spots, narrow pipe bends, and—most commonly—inside the return pipe where water slows down. The final straw was the boiler pressure dropping

Before calling a plumber, check your system type. If you have microbore (small plastic or copper pipes like spaghetti), you are high risk. Those block permanently and often require full repiping. If you have standard 22mm/15mm copper, a powerflush will save you.

Locate the blocked pipe: Use an infrared thermometer or just feel along the pipe run. You'll find a spot where the pipe goes from hot to cold in 2 inches. Method: Isolate the system, drain below the blockage, cut the pipe, and use a wet-dry vacuum on the open end. I sucked out a golf-ball sized clump of black sludge. Then, I fed a drain snake (yes, a plumbing auger) into the pipe to break up the rest. Warning: This is messy, and if you have microbore (8-10mm) pipes, you will likely puncture them.