Flushing old Radiators

Kevin McCann

How do you go about flushing the rust,sediment,minerals and such out of old radiators. Then test to see if it was done correctly.

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Cleaning Rads

From what I've read, the bottoms of iron rads act as their own "gunk" reservoirs and they take a really long time to fill. The velocity of water moving through the rad is slow enough that it doesn't pick the stuff up and move it through the system.

I've flushed some by removing them outside first of course, then propping up one end a few inches and spraying with a garden hose at the high end. You really don't want to remove the surface scale and rust as in a closed system this actually forms a protective layer against further corrosion.

Because they get fresh air and water, steam systems tend to corrode more than water systems.