Restoring a radiator ?

[Stephen]

I have a tatty well cosmetically radiator in a room I'm trying to decorate (slowly). There is a little surface rust at the bottom just a very very little amount. On the rest of it its a little bit of enamel ? chipped here and there and is discoloured from smoking (was a rented room to a lodger who smoked, who should not have tsk)

I got a few quotes for radiators new ones and its around £50 for a new one ....

But I was thinking a dab of krusts rust remover, some wet and dry to flat it and air brush it with some radiator enamel, I think you can air brush this stuff, will double check ?

Will that work and not stink when the rad is on ?

...Main reason for asking as I;m trying to do this project at my leisure without high costs.

[Usenet Nutter]

I have done a couple with rad paint of 2 different types and one was much better than the other but I'm damned if I can recall the name of it . It's not a patch,of course,on a replacement radiator ...Try your local Freecycle Group on Yahoo or Google or the Gumtree Section Freebie Ads and you might well get a free rad .

[Bren]

Not sure if this applies to all areas but Freecycle are now calling themselves Freegle where I live!

[John]

I have always used ordinary gloss paint. I remove the radiator - decorate behind it - flush the radiator and then give it a good rub down with wet & dry.

I paint the radiator with it laying flat to avoid runs. Let it dry for a couple of days and then refit.

If the rust is from the inside I would recommend replacement. Does the system have a corrosion inhibitor?

[Roger Mills]

Sort of. The Freecycle parent organisation is American - with very strict rules as to what overseas offshoots can and can't do. Many of the UK (ex-)Freecycle administrators have fallen out big time with the parent organisation, and have formed a totally independent UK organisation called Freegle. Members of those groups which have switched have also been switched, more or less transparently.

[ericp]

Any indication where they fell out?

[Usenet Nutter]

I think the fallout started a long time ago but I don't know what caused it .

[Tony Bryer]

[Roger Mills]

I'm only involved on the fringe as an ordinary member, but I get the impression that a lot of UK administrators wanted to customise the way it works a bit to suit the British culture, and the Yanks weren't having any - and immediately pulled the plug on any Admin who argued with them.

[Clot]

Never even bothered isolating or removing the rads. Always thought that the use of a "specialist product" was excellent marketing. First house, mid 20s with central heating installed in the 60s, I purchased in the early 70s. Slight corrosion from abusive (clumbsy) use of the key when bleeding. With no CH on, I manually sanded and then used normal gloss paint. Allowed several days or could have been weeks before I blasted the system with heat to set and remove odour (during the summer).

Second house, bought new in the late 70s, where some of the rads. had some minor rust marks quite soon after installation. Process as house No. 1. No problem.

Third house, bought new in early 80s, where experience and treatment as above.

Been in the house now 27/28 years. Some of the rads I have had to rub down and repaint up to 3 times always manually in summer and repainted with normal gloss and then blasted with heat after a couple of days. The driver to repaint has been because of physical damage to the paint mostly due to kids and also the peddle bin in the kitchen that the silly SWMBO'd will place so that it smashes into the radiator! In all cases I have had no problem using regular gloss and have never bothered treating the rust patch.

[John]

Removing the radiator kills two birds with one stone - it avoids the question in a few months - "what can I do about my radiator? - it has a cold patch at the bottom". It seems to me a good phased way of checking for sludge and cleaning them out - surely a good practice. At the same time the wall at the back can be properly decorated. I was also amazed how much dust can gather in the fins at the back.

[Clot]

I'm not a perfectionist! However, I do agree that it is an opportunity to desludge. I tend to do that as a separate exercise, i.e. every two to three years - drain the system, fill and run for a couple of hours, drain again, refill and run for a week or two, redrain and then refill including inhibitor. So far so good.

[Andy Dingley]

Ordinary gloss will discolour, although not by much these days.

So if they're white, I'd go with heat resistant. If they're not even trying to be white, something cheaper will be fine. Who cares if it changes a bit?

[Dave]

I have done this in the past with a view to changing to a more efficient radiator. Over the years it should save you money on your heating bills. Just my thoughts.

Dave

[Roger Mills]

What's a more efficient radiator? How does it save money?

[Dave]

Most of our radiators are double pressed types and all the new ones have been similar, but with lots of fins between the pressings. I find the room is much warmer after they have been added because the heat transfer is much beter.

An efficient rad will get the room up to temp quicker and if you have the right insulation will hold that heat much longer without demanding more.

Dave

[Usenet Nutter]

Glasgow whwre I stay but when I got the confirmation e-mail it had links to Freecycle at the foot of it ..I thought Freegle had been created because of issues with Freecycle so thought it odd that they had links back to it .I have asked them at Freegle and await a reply.

[Roger Mills]

Radiators with fins certainly have a greater heat output for a given size - but that doesn't make them more *efficient* in absolute terms. The boiler just has to work harder in order to supply them with heat at the rate at which they are dissipating it into the room - and uses more fuel in the process. The effect of using a larger radiator without fins would be exactly the same.

A radiator with a higher heat *output* will heat the room more quickly. Heat retention is purely down to the standard of insulation. Neither has anything to do with the "efficiency" of the radator!

[Dave]

I stand corrected then. Thanks

Dave

[spamlet]

Black goo can make a terrible mess if not v careful when actually removing rads. Depending on the situation and how much 'lift' you may have in the connecting pipes, you can often get away with just loosening the connector nuts a little then lifting the rad off its crutches and laying it down forward - onto say a chair for support. Then you can temporarily tighten the nuts while you clean etc behind. You can also stir up the sludge a bit more by laying the rad right down forward, so that bottom becomes top, before turning the pump up full.

Of course if your rad is old, it is quite likely to be leaking from the bottom before long anyway...

S