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Eggs is eggs. Water treatment is water treatment…OH, NO IT'S NOT!

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There’s a view circulating in the heating sector that water treatment is….well simply water treatment. It’s all the same, much of a muchness and it may even all be made by the same people.

Well its not. Very much the same way as Kelloggs has come out and said if it doesn’t say Kelloggs on the packet, its not Kelloggs in the packet, leading water treatment brand Sentinel has come out to state categorically that it doesn’t make water treatment products for anyone else and to highlight what is actually in the Sentinel bottles that makes it different from the competition.

Over the past few months, Sentinel has been highlighting its TripleTech™ technology – having launched its TripleTech™ branding on its X800 Jetflo cleaner and its X100 protector and inhibitor. Sentinel’s John Lynch says it’s time to differentiate between the quality brands and the others on the market: “Since water treatment products were first included in the Building Regs Part L Guide for Installers document, there have been a host of new entrants to the water treatment sector and we welcome that – competition is a healthy thing. But it’s very much been in many of these new entrants interests to promulgate the theory that there’s nothing much to choose between the products – they all do the same job. The product in a bottle of Sentinel X800 and many other cleaner products is the difference between chalk and cheese. As is the product in a bottle of Sentinel X100 and many other bottles of inhibitor.”

TripleTech™ Anti Corrosion Technology ’ in X100 is a unique formula which has three different kinds of heavy duty specialist corrosion inhibitors, each of which target a specific metal-type for unrivalled performance in a multi metal system.

TripleTech™ Anti Corrosion Technology has been formulated to protect against corrosion, scale, boiler noise and hydrogen gassing in all types of indirect heating systems.

X800 Jetflo contains ‘TripleTech Power Clean Technology’ – another unique formula which has three different chemical technologies which penetrate and attack system scale and corrosion debris, dissolving into a 'ready to flush' solution, whilst leaving a longlasting anti corrosion surface protection.

X800 Jetflo with TripleTech Power Clean Technology is a powerful, highly active cleaning agent. Its unique composition allows Sentinel X800 Jetflo to act as a penetrating dispersant under neutral pH conditions, eliminating the need to clean with conventional acids and the problems associated with them. The formula also contains agents to protect metals from corrosion.

“Boiler manufacturers wouldn’t recommend Sentinel by name in their installation instructions unless they were convinced by the information we share with them, that what we offer is the best,” says John Lynch. “Boiler manufacturers are aware that the majority of problems they have, come from poor quality installation – which includes not flushing systems and not using quality water treatment products and from poor quality circulating water. That’s why they want all installers to use quality water treatment products and that’s why they include using them in their training courses.”

Sentinel has invested huge amounts over the years in research and development and in testing products, again and again. It’s not something every water treatment company does. It’s funded independent research by GasTec to find out what really happens when you use water treatment products. Over the past two years its invested huge amounts in developing a range of specialist products for renewable heating systems, that need cleaning, flushing, and protecting just as much – arguably more – than traditional heating systems. These are not the actions of a ‘follower’ who simply bottles chemicals as inexpensively as it can and offers them to the industry. These are the actions of an industry leader dedicated to providing quality products to ensure that heating systems run as energy efficiently as possible, with as low a level of emissions as possible and keeping maintenance levels as low as possible.

The quality water treatment companies have given huge amounts of their time to attend a myriad of meetings over the years in an effort to get standards agreed, to get water treatment recognised by the Government in Building Regulations, and have joined and given time to the official trade organisations – such as HHIC and the DWTA – that operate so that they can encourage and put pressure on those who need to be convinced of the value of quality water treatment as part of the energy efficiency programme of the heating sector for this country.

There should be absolutely no doubt out there that water treatment is a vital component of our heating industry. Nor that there should be significant differentiation between those that take the sector very seriously and are dedicated to ensuring that the sector can benefit from the best expertise and technology and those that are part of it simply because they can make a quick buck.

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