Corrosion on Runtal radiator

dgdg

Howdy folks,



I recently purchased a 19th-century row house in DC with hot water radiators -- including a couple Runtal flat-panels in the renovated kitchen and bath (the other radiators are traditional cast iron).  Although a local contractor gave the system a clean bill of health, I have since noticed corrosion along the bottom-left of one of the Runtal units, as shown in the attached pics.



It looks like this is the Runtal Omnipanel TW18-24.  I assume the corrosion is being caused by a small leak, but I'm no expert in these matters.  Can it be repaired at this point?  If not, is it something that I can live with or somehow mitigate?  I would of course like to avoid having to replace the radiator.  Thanks very much for any assistance you can provide.

Thorp Thomas

Piece of cake to rehab it...

 

You can send it back to Runtal in Bradford, MA and they'll repair it and recoat it for you. If you were one of my customers, we would do it in our shop, then send it across town to have it blasted and powder coated. The last one I did was 16' - 4 panel in much worse condition than yours, in & out in and back on the job in five days for $375 total and it looked brand new.

Sorry that you're not in my service area or we'd offer to do the job. However, I'm sure you can find someone in the area that can do the job.

dgdg

Thanks!

That's good to hear.  I'll see if I can figure out who installed these; otherwise, I'll just call Runtal to get a local representative.

Thorp Thomas

follow up

It looks like the rust is only surface rust from a misalignment of the threads in the St. ell (a common problem). I would sand off the rust and corrosion to the bare metal and check to see if the leak has stopped, if it has, then I would repaint it in place. If not, I would drain disassemble the fittings, re-dope with wicking and reassemble and then repaint.

Your third picture looks as if the rusted area is only on the header and not on the front panel, so I wouldn’t go to the expense and bother to send it back.  

tim smith

Re: restore rusted radiator

You will need to take that radiator off wall, take both elbow and plug out in case plug may be leaking. Clean up, sand area and refit with good pipe compound. Then you can get a container of Runtal white touch up paint and make it look pretty good. You will want to look real close at fit up area for seeping around fittings, at first and also during off season as this is when they contract. These do occur sometimes due to expansion and contraction. Good luck.