Sludge at bottom of 2 radiators

katy123

I've got 10 raditors in my house, 2 of those are cold at the bottom, so i took one of them off yesterday and flushed it with a hose (i didn't know I had to turn it upside down). Sludge came out. I've since installed the radiator and noticed it has improved. Why is that all guide/videos turn the radiator upside down before putting the hose on? Thanks.

I was about to get a power flush but if it's still cold because I didn't turn it upside down, I might take the radiators off again. Also, once i put the radiator back on, what chemical should I put in the radiator to stop sludge forming again?

phatbear

If you dont turn the rad upside down prior to putting the hose in all your doing is flushing out all of the crud thats laying in the bottom.

Turn it upside down and you are able to wash out far more as you will fill the rad up rather than just the area between the two openings.

Ganga

Would flushing it out the right way up not flush the bulk of the sediment that lies in the bottom then turn it upside down and do it again to remove anything left in

Alex1983

When Ive done powerflushing I quite often manually flush some rads, all we do is flush upside down and the right way up and then fill it a little and shake it back and forth. Does just as good job as a powerflush machine.

katy123

Thank you for the insight..... I will try to hose it again. Then,do some sentinel x400. Is this the right order?

G_M

Well, if you put in the sentinel first, then all you'll do is flush (some of) it out again!

As said, turning the rad upside down (and/or indeed giving it a shake!) will loosen the crud so it's mixed with the water. It can then be more easily flushed than if it is lying all stuck together at the base.

bris

A lot of crud is stuck solid to the radiators and normal flushing, especially when you haven't put a powerful system cleaner through it heated to 70 degrees for a hour, first just simply won't shift it.


This is why you need system cleaner, it softens and helps release the stuck crud. A rubber mallet, or even better the magnacleanse agitator is needed to vibrate it all loose so it can be removed properly.


Even though you see a lot of black stuff flushing out the radiator you only got half of it.


Fit a magna clean, run a normal system cleaner through the system for a couple of weeks. Hit the bottom of the radiators with the rubber mallet and see what the magna clean has picked up, you won't believe your eyes.


Once the magna clean stops picking up the crud empy the system a couple of times to flush out the non magnetic crap (that's a yellowish colour) and put an inhibitor into the system.

katy123

Sorry, slightly confused. So would you suggest I take off rad first or rum the sentinel cleaner first?