My new radiator seems to be full of an endless amount of junk.....

Goose · 27 Mar 2019 at 14:42

.....and might be my fault?

As some of you will know from my spamming of this forum that i'm labouring my way through my first custom loop. I've been cleaning my rads out with distilled vinegar followed by hot water and after countless refills and shaking stuff is still coming out.

At first it was just black speckles which it was i was expecting but i'm now seeing something that looks very similar to sand. I have to assume this is copper.

I'm concerned that i may have been too aggressive with the vinegar and it's eaten away at the copper inside that rad.

Is this anything to be concerned about?

Van Diemen · 27 Mar 2019 at 15:15

To give yourself peace of mind I would recommend getting the Mayhems Blitz kit.

Run Part-1 through the rads, flush with distilled, then run Part-2 either the entire loop or just the rads & pump

vinegar solution will not damage the rads

Glanza · 27 Mar 2019 at 16:43

What make of radiator is it, they all vary on the amount of cleaning they get before shipping and some do have loads of bits inside that takes some considerable flushing.

Goose · 27 Mar 2019 at 16:51

It's a Hardware Labs 360mmx60mm.

LuckyBenski · 27 Mar 2019 at 18:15

Van Diemen said:
vinegar solution will not damage the rads

It can, depending on how strong and how long you leave it in for. At the end of the day vinegar is an acid and copper is a metal - acids eat metal. I don't see a lot of failures from vinegar flushes, but it's easy to start producing copper salts and producing blue fluid.

Smffy · 27 Mar 2019 at 21:26

Goose said:
It's a Hardware Labs 360mmx60mm.

Having had a number of them, they can take a hell of a lot of rinsing - mix of white and black bits. It could just be whatever flux they use but I don’t know, all I know is my 240 and 360 took about 10 flushes, the 480 took 2 and was clean

NoNameNoNumber · 27 Mar 2019 at 21:34

My Coolgate 480s were spotless.

D1craig · 27 Mar 2019 at 22:40

Ekwb says they clean their rads before shipping or something but I found them as dirty as my mayhems rads.

For the life of me I couldn't stop them little specs of black coming out when cleaning them though. Sometimes it would just be 1 spec but still concerned me. I have up in the end and stuck them in anyway. Was flushing for hours.

Evilmethod666 · 28 Mar 2019 at 08:46

I'm guessing I've just been lucky with my HWL GTS and GTR rads as they have been clear after only 2 flushings? I'd take the time to flush the the loop with Mayhems blitz one shot

orbitalwalsh · 28 Mar 2019 at 10:37

Blitz kit! and alphacool are the worst for not cleaning rads!

MikeTimbers · 28 Mar 2019 at 19:43

hook it up to an aquarium pump, fill the bath, put the pump in the bath and run hose to the rad and back to the bath. leave for 24 hours. I keep an old Eheim 1250 just for flushing parts.

tyler_jrb · 31 Mar 2019 at 11:51

I normally just plumb mine onto garden hosepipe and leave it running for a while. Then rinse with distilled and dry out with compressed air.

Mayhems part 1 is highly recommended though!