Cleaning new radiator questions

[JohnTedd]

I've read the stickie on radiator cleaning and I have started the process. The vinegar is currently in the radiator at the moment, but I have some questions and concerns...

1. My radiator has 4 inlet/outlets. Three of them have G1/4 plugs in them and the other has a compression joint. In all cases there are rubber O-rings in these. Should I be worried about the vinegar attacking the rubber?

2. I am thinking of connecting up my pump to help shift some of the muck from the radiator. Is this a good/bad idea?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

John

 

[JohnTedd]

I did one 6 hour soak with neat vinegar, followed by an 8 hour soak in de-ionized water. Here's the liquid after the soak (the vinegar one is on the right):

I then connected the pump for an hour or two with more de-ionized water. Afterwards the water was pretty clear. However once I drained it all down I examined the plugs and their ends were all discoloured. Is this normal. Here's a really poor photo of them. The middle right one is new, whereas the others have all been soaking with the radiator:

Do I need to do anything to clean these? Are they OK?

Thanks in advance

 

[JohnTedd]

Thanks for the reply Oldphart, but as I said right at the start of my original post, I have read the cleaning guide and was following it.

I'm largely through it now but I was concerned about the state of my blanking plugs. There were originally silver-looking, but now they look like tarnished copper. Perhaps this is natural after having a vinegar bath, but I would like to know if anyone else has an opinion on this, and whether anyone else has seen it too.

John

 

[JohnTedd]

Thanks for all the replies. I will make sure that I properly flush out the rad via the tap. I was concerned about introducing limescale into the system given that our tap water is pretty hard, but quite a few have suggested it so I'll give it a go tonight and then make a final flush with de-ionized water.

The o-rings look OK to me and they are still watertight.

I will give the tomato sauce a go on one of the plugs tonight too.

Thanks
John

 

[JohnTedd]

I tried putting tomato ketchup on the plug, but it made no difference, so perhaps it's not tarnished as much as stripped.

I connected the rad up to the tap and left it running for a while and then rinsed it with de-ionized water so hopefully it is good to go now.

Thanks for all the advice

John

 

[JohnTedd]

For future reference you really shouldn't need to use vinegar now as most rads use water soluable flux which hot water will remove.

Perhaps it's time to get the stickie updated then!

As you say, though, I don't think removing the coating is going to do too much harm as all the metal in my loop will be copper or copper alloys.