The industry’s dirtiest little secret revealed

Liam Ingarfield from Ezi-Flow Plumbing and Heating has won a £200 holiday voucher after coming out on top in Sentinel’s #DirtylitleSecrets competition. Following a raft of submissions from plumbers and heating installers across the UK, Liam’s water treatment tip was chosen as the dirtiest little secret in a public vote.

Throughout the competition, installers were asked to share their top piece of advice for using water treatment or filters via Twitter using the hashtag #DirtyLittleSecrets. At the end of each week, a panel of judges voted for their favourite entry, with the weekly winner receiving a special Sentinel product and merchandise bundle.

Liam was chosen as the overall winner of the competition in a public poll on Twitter that saw him clinch the top spot with 53% of the vote. Here's Liam’s holiday-winning tip: "When fitting a filter, always leave the spanner hanging up next to it. That way, when you go back to service the filter, you won't have to worry about accessing it."

Speaking of his success, Liam said: “I’m buzzing to have won the Dirty Little Secrets competition and I’d like to thank everyone who voted for my piece of advice. It’s great to see Sentinel doing their bit to encourage installers to share tips, I picked up some very valuable hints myself and I’m glad others found my entry useful.

“I think we’re very good as an industry at supporting each other out with advice and competitions like this which encourage the sharing of best practice advice make this possible. I’m planning to use my holiday voucher on a trip to XXX – thanks again to Sentinel!”

Coming in 2nd, 3rd and 4th place were:

• “Always ensure the filter is accessible and easy to clean. A filter should always be fitted on a flushed and clean system with inhibitor.” Lee Stafford from LWL Heating
• "To confirm the system has been correctly cleansed, ensure the TDS is within 10% of the incoming water mains and the ph is around 7 (neutral). To ensure the level of inhibitor is correct, use the x100 quick test.” Yousef from Yousef Installations
• “When cleaning out filters, use a washing machine hose (especially when a container will not fit underneath) – the bent connector of the washing machine hose fits perfectly to the filter to clean and drain into a bucket.” Ian Smith from IJS Trade Services

Sentinel, an international manufacturer of high-performance water treatment solutions for heating and hot water systems, ran the competition as part of its ongoing commitment to provide support to installers by sharing advice, information and best practice hints and tips.

Neil Davies, marketing director at Sentinel, speaking of the importance of the competition said: “The aim of our Dirty Little Secrets campaign was to provide extra support to installers by encouraging them to share valuable, practical advice with each other. It was fantastic to see so many within the industry engaging with the competition on social media and getting involved with the conversation. We received some brilliant pieces of advice for using water treatment and filters throughout and the great prizes we gave away were fully deserved.”