Cleaning radiator

Mayfair · 22 Jul 2011 at 08:06

Hello all,

Today I have my radiators being delivered, I still need to get some distilled/de-ionised water to clean the rads.

I've looked on Halfords website and the only thing I found was 'Halfords Battery Top-Up Water 5L' it states

The Halfords Battery Top-Up Water is a 5 litre bottle of de-ionised water, suitable for use in lead-acid batteries. It can also be used in engine cooling systems to reduce scaling and corrosion as well as irons, lava lamps and air-conditioning units.

Would this be fine to use for cleaning my new rads?

I did check Tesco’s website but couldn’t find anything, they either must have stopped listing it on their website or stopped selling it.

Here is the Halfords link so you can take a look.

I will be using Mayhems Pre-Mix for the coolant so this is just for cleaning the radiator's, Would this Halfords stuff be fine?

Many thanks,

Dons: I don’t think this is classed as a competitor, if it is please remove this thread.

joxang · 22 Jul 2011 at 08:38

De-ionised is fine, but distilled is better. For cleaning it doesn't matter so much, but you could use distilled water for your coolant. And if you can't find it look at tech retailers, not at Halfords

!!

Mayfair · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:11

Thanks joxang,

The reason I checked Halfords and Tesco etc, as many people have said that’s the best sort of places to get distilled / de-ionised pretty cheap.

I've seen people just use normal tap water to flush their rads, But I’m not very keen on that idea.

So, do you think that stuff from Halfords will be fine for just flushing the rads? If so would I need to do a few rinses of the stuff warm-ish?

Many thanks again,

joxang · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:22

Mayfair said:
So, do you think that stuff from Halfords will be fine for just flushing the rads? If so would I need to do a few rinses of the stuff warm-ish?

If you're getting a new rad now, it shouldn't need many flushes to be fine. The older rads often had huge bits of metal and grit in them and when you flushed them you'd literally turn the water dark. Out of the new rads I've flushed in the past year or two, none of them had more than a few tiny bits of metal loose. Dunno if that's just me being lucky....or just better quality control/manufacturing at the factory

.

I just fill it up with warmed distilled water (de-ionised is fine), shake it vigorously for a couple of minutes, drain it, repeat until water comes out totally clear several times. You can also add vinegar, or baking soda, and leave it to soak, but I haven't found much difference with doing that. Mebbe do that if your rads are horribly dirty.

Re: coolant, I use triple distilled water which you can get from some tech shops, which is *supposed* to be a lot safer for your components if you spring a leak. Probably just snake oil but I feel a bit more confident with it anyhow

.

Mayfair · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:29

joxang said:
If you're getting a new rad now, it shouldn't need many flushes to be fine. The older rads often had huge bits of metal and grit in them and when you flushed them you'd literally turn the water dark. Out of the new rads I've flushed in the past year or two, none of them had more than a few tiny bits of metal loose. Dunno if that's just me being lucky....or just better quality control/manufacturing at the factory .

I just fill it up with warmed distilled water (de-ionised is fine), shake it vigorously for a couple of minutes, drain it, repeat until water comes out totally clear several times. You can also add vinegar, or baking soda, and leave it to soak, but I haven't found much difference with doing that. Mebbe do that if your rads are horribly dirty.

Re: coolant, I use triple distilled water which you can get from some tech shops, which is *supposed* to be a lot safer for your components if you spring a leak. Probably just snake oil but I feel a bit more confident with it anyhow .

Ok that's excellent

Thanks for your help joxang.

Jokester · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:32

Deionised and distilled are effectively the same thing so don't get hung up with using deionised.

Duesix · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:51

To de-ionise water most companies will feed the de-ionising resins with distilled water anyhow to prolong the life of resin beds.
Resin beds are quite expensive.

Bubo · 22 Jul 2011 at 11:56

Also don't get hung up about using bog standard tap water for res cleaning. All that may happen is you may get a tiny amount of calcium carbonate residue left in afterwards, which will make three fifths of **** all difference to the performance of the rad. If you're still bothered about it then do a final flush with di-ionized. I personally connected my rads to the hot tap in my bathroom and left it flushing for 10 minutes. This was after doing the fill and shake, again with normal hot water.

Mayfair · 22 Jul 2011 at 18:24

Bubo said:
Also don't get hung up about using bog standard tap water for res cleaning. All that may happen is you may get a tiny amount of calcium carbonate residue left in afterwards, which will make three fifths of **** all difference to the performance of the rad. If you're still bothered about it then do a final flush with di-ionized. I personally connected my rads to the hot tap in my bathroom and left it flushing for 10 minutes. This was after doing the fill and shake, again with normal hot water.

Intresting..

Thanks all for your replys.

jorzeh · 24 Jul 2011 at 18:19

I just make my own with my RO unit which goes into a deionizer. RO-Man sell the DI's quite cheap you can get all the water you'll ever need then. I use mine for my Marine fish tank but you can actually get this water from any marine shop for pretty much 20p per L.

Nat.