Flushing Radiator Sludge

Bendy_House

Yes, mine was in the high £200's, I think I recall, but it'll sell on for the same. As you say, tho', it would be a straight fit for you.

(I cleaned mine up better than I received it, and sold it for slightly more, I recall...)

I would agree with what you said earlier - you REALLY don't want this sludge circulating around your system, and especially your boiler. So try and set up a diagonal through-flow, one rad at a time. 

Not sure if bottom INLET might actually be best - the flow will hit the bottom-centre sludge, and should help lift it away and out t'top.

Set up your connectors well, tho' - the correct screw threads, hoses clipped securely in place, a smear of Hawk or PTFE on the threads. Then you can turn on your flow at a good rate, and thoroughly clean the rad. Hopefully.

daveyjp

How old is the radiator?  It can get to the point where its easier to simply fit a new one rather than spend hours trying to clean one full of crud.

akira181

Bendy_House said:

Yes, mine was in the high £200's, I think I recall, but it'll sell on for the same. As you say, tho', it would be a straight fit for you.

(I cleaned mine up better than I received it, and sold it for slightly more, I recall...)

I would agree with what you said earlier - you REALLY don't want this sludge circulating around your system, and especially your boiler. So try and set up a diagonal through-flow, one rad at a time. 

Not sure if bottom INLET might actually be best - the flow will hit the bottom-centre sludge, and should help lift it away and out t'top.

Set up your connectors well, tho' - the correct screw threads, hoses clipped securely in place, a smear of Hawk or PTFE on the threads. Then you can turn on your flow at a good rate, and thoroughly clean the rad. Hopefully.

Looks like they're going for mid £300s just now unless you go for one that looks like it's had a hard time bouncing round the back of a van for most it's life.

I've attempted a MWS flush from the boiler (isolated boiler return and drained from filter) at 1.5 bar, flushing one rad at a time Didn't get much out the system though. I knew it was a long shot, just wanted to try before removing rads.

I got compression fittings on bits of copper pipe jammed into a garden hose and jubilee clipped down. I got two washing machine tap valves used for fill/drain, one side fits into the rad, the other the 15mm copper pipe/hose. And I disconnect my basin cold tap flexi and use that for mains water source.

Was able to send 3bar through without any leaks. Went over the top on that setup to avoid leaks after I realised I wasn't able to do this outside. If I can get a 90 degree onto the copper pipe, I might be able to connect both inlet and outlet to the bottom of the rad without removing if from the wall but means I wouldn't be able to shake it about.

daveyjp said:

How old is the radiator?  It can get to the point where its easier to simply fit a new one rather than spend hours trying to clean one full of crud.

No idea how old the rad is, it's a double panel type 22 but there's no side or top cover so you can see straight into the centre fin area. I'm assuming that makes it relatively old but still looks in good condition bar the sludge. Definitely worth a couple hours getting it fixed.

Bendy_House

A very good point by Davey, especially if your rad happened to be a 'smaller' type - single panel and stuff. Because you improve the running efficiency of condie boilers by lowering the flow (and hence the return) temp, but this then requires a larger rad to obtain the same output as before.

If you ARE considering replacing any, then - especially if it's in a living area, so on for longer - please consider up-sizing them, even it it needs an adjustment of the pipes.

akira181

My boiler return is usually between 50 to 55 C. Rest of the house heats up fine, just the one in the living room is causing issues (bedroom has a blockage in the pipework somewhere but since we rarely have the heating on in there, I'm not caring about it for now).

If I can't sort this radiator and get the room to a good temperature like the rest of the house, I'm going to upgrade to a higher output aluminium one probably.