Not exactly heating....

Josh_10

Click on Hot Tech Topics and read the subtitle: Does the color of a radiator matter?

saxman251

Painting radiators

I am planning on stripping the paint from my cast iron radiators this summer and would like to repaint them. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? I am particularly interested in what type/brand of paint to use.

Thanks

Mike T., Swampeast MO

How do you plan to strip them? The only reasonable ways I know require removal:

1) Sandblasting

2) Lye bath soaking

3) Pressure washing with ZERO-DEGREE nozzle.

Pressure washer with ZERO-DEGREE nozzle is cheap even if you have to rent the pressure washer. In my experience, most rads were originally "bronzed" and the subsequent coats of paint are poorly adhered. The pressure washer will remove nearly every trace of paint with the original bronzing still there in most places.

Sandblasting gives you "new" iron. The chemical soak (if you're patient enough and do it enough times) will do the same but you'll still find a pressure washer GREAT for removing the gunk between soakings...

After stripping, prime with FLAT ALKYD (OIL) PAINT. TWO LIGHT COATS ARE BEST!!! After such priming you can do anything you want--oil, latex, modern "bronzing". I prefer to brush, but then I'm part kooky artist... You can buy (most likely order) an "angle radiator brush" from good paint stores, but they're awfully large. Otherwise get a 1" synthetic, flat artists brush from a hobby store. Use a vice or long-nose vice-grips to bend the ferrule (metal part between the handles and bristle) to about 30°. I can paint every square millimeter of even a seven-tube rad with such a brush, but you will want an unbent brush for the "easy" places...