rusty radiator

silvercar

Radiator in loo had peeled paint and rust from being splashed from sink water.

scrubbed it down and painted it with Wickes primer; now I have little brown (rust) dots all over it.

No plumber is interested in replacing it as it has a siezed up valve at one end, no valve at the other and the pipes disappear into a solid wall.

So now I have a radiator covered in brown dots - what do I do next?

please bear in mind I can't turn the radiator off!

startrekker

I would rub it down again and get some of that Rust prevention that is used for car bodyworkthat you paint on. That should stop the rust coming back to begin with. Then i would use the primer then radiator enamel

Madstuthe1st

Don't know if you have the space but what about a radiator cover?

silvercar

Madstuthe1st wrote:

Don't know if you have the space but what about a radiator cover?

I really want to stop the rust, otherwise the radiator will eventually develop a leak. towel rail is over the radiator so a cover wouldn't really work, good idea though.

Is there a paint that can go on top of rust? May be a paint for outside use?

bigdic

There's smootherite (smooth form of hammerite) which will turn any remaining rust into an undercoat. Just not sure if you can use it on a radiator.

silvercar

thanks for all your help. One coat of hammerite smooth now in place, all brown rust spots covered; just waiting to see what happens after the radiator has been on for a few hours!

BTW wickes now only sell own make paint. Hammerite sourced at Halfords.

plumb1_2

silvercar wrote:

No plumber is interested in replacing it as it has a siezed up valve at one end, no valve at the other and the pipes disappear into a solid wall.

Dont know why, btw is sounds like you have a 1 pipe system, flow and return same pipe. I would say 90% of Plumber/heating engineers have never seen this type of heating.

silvercar

plumb1 wrote:

Dont know why, btw is sounds like you have a 1 pipe system, flow and return same pipe. I would say 90% of Plumber/heating engineers have never seen this type of heating.

The 4 radiators at the front of the house do this; the flow and return disappear into solid external walls. Flows into top and right and returns from bottom left of the radiator, looks really wierd. One of these radiators has a TRV on it that doesn't work, is it possible to have TRVs on a 1 pipe system?

Heats the house quite well and we've just had a room thermostat fitted to save energy.

roswell

I was going to suggest Kurust from hammerit used this on a car before its funny stuff, If your brown spots return rub down the radiator and paint with this stuff its like milk so make sure you cover the floor, on contact with rust on metal it turns blue and dries black you can then paint over the rust.