[rushino]

Hi there,

Just wanted to know what is the best way to flush the radiator ?

Thanks.

 

[Pencuri]

Flush it with a ratio of 10% vinegar and 90% distilled water. Do it a couple of times until there is nothing left coming out with the water.

 

[lp75220]

If your talking on a vehicle, you go to the auto parts store and buy radiator flushg kit. you pour it in your coolant. run the vehicle for like 5 minutes. you pull either the lower radiator hose off the car or the plug out of the bottom of the radiator (some cars do not have the plug on radator like say an 09 yukon). while the fluid drains out with the vehicle off you put a water hose in the radiator filler spout or the cooalt jug and let it run till you see nothing but clear water coming out the bottom. next you resecure either the hose or the radiator plug. refill the coolnant leave the cap off when full. start the vehicle and rev the motor to about 2000 rpm with the heater on (this is needed becuase some cooling systems have water contorl valve for the heater core) after you see no more big air bubbles comin up in radiator or jug fill the rest of the way up and put cap on. know driv ethe vehicel and you may see the temp gauge get high for a minute. this is normal because you have air bubble in the cooling system still. it will go away after the system burps itself. that it in a nut shell. i hope you ment vehicle cause if not i will feel dumb for writing all of this.

 

[R00ST3R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pencuri;13040585
Flush it with a ratio of 10% vinegar and 90% distilled water. Do it a couple of times until there is nothing left coming out with the water.

Pretty much this. Solution recommendations vary. I do a 4:1 distilled water/distilled white vinegar solution. Some people recommend boiling water too, but I've never had problems with the vinegar treatment.

 

[huhh]

Flush with Boiling water. Then flush with distilled.

 

[Eggy88]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lp75220;13040645
If your talking on a vehicle,.....

i hope you ment vehicle cause if not i will feel dumb for writing all of this.

Now its the time to feel dumb. OFC he is not talking about vehicles, its a Water Cooling thread on Overclock.net

 

[Gib007]

I couldn't be bothered getting vinegar just for this or even stinking up the radiator. I poured tap water into my kettle, boiled it and nearly filled the radiator with it. I shook it to death for a few minutes and then emptied it. I repeated this once more. To finish, I put some demineralised water into the radiator, shook it vigorously and emptied it. This was to flush out whatever crap the tap water left inside.

Result?
No visible "polluting" of my coolant (demineralised water & PT Nuke) once I started using my loop. Everything is clean.

 

[Soggysilicon]

1:4 5-10% white vinegar with distilled water is used as the vinegar is highly acidic, that acid will react with the welding flux used to join the copper tubing and laminel/laminal of the radiator. Often that flux if not reacted and flushed out before (new) radiator use, it may get into the loop and now you will have little bits of "stuff" in the loop, pump, blocks... Vinegar is also a mild antibacterial agent as well, so its a safe bet that it will take care of most if not all the critters in the rad, before installed.

At the end of this flush, rinse well with distilled water until no more blue-green reacted material is ejected from the rinse, no need to introduce that much acid into the loop needlessly, it may be hard on your coatings and plumbing.

 

[DesertRat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lp75220;13040645
If your talking on a vehicle, you go to the auto parts store and buy radiator flushg kit. you pour it in your coolant. run the vehicle for like 5 minutes. you pull either the lower radiator hose off the car or the plug out of the bottom of the radiator (some cars do not have the plug on radator like say an 09 yukon). while the fluid drains out with the vehicle off you put a water hose in the radiator filler spout or the cooalt jug and let it run till you see nothing but clear water coming out the bottom. next you resecure either the hose or the radiator plug. refill the coolnant leave the cap off when full. start the vehicle and rev the motor to about 2000 rpm with the heater on (this is needed becuase some cooling systems have water contorl valve for the heater core) after you see no more big air bubbles comin up in radiator or jug fill the rest of the way up and put cap on. know driv ethe vehicel and you may see the temp gauge get high for a minute. this is normal because you have air bubble in the cooling system still. it will go away after the system burps itself. that it in a nut shell. i hope you ment vehicle cause if not i will feel dumb for writing all of this.

It's ok. I'm a tech guy, and I was thinking automotive radiator flush as well. here, have a cookie for a good writeup.

 

[rushino]

Yeah it was for watercooling but doesn't matter lol Thanks a lots for the tips guys.

 

[SmokinWaffle]

I just used distilled water and lots of shaking, two rinses and it was clear, got all of the sand like flux out.

 

[Mongol]

10% vinegar solution (1 cup distilled white vinegar to 9 cups boiling hot water)

Fill radiator. Cap. Shake it for a minute. Let stand for 3-4 minutes. Drain.

Flush with hot water.

Final rinse with distilled.

 

[rushino]

Quote:

Originally Posted by *********;13047751
10% vinegar solution (1 cup distilled white vinegar to 9 cups boiling hot water)

Fill radiator. Cap. Shake it for a minute. Let stand for 3-4 minutes. Drain.

Flush with hot water.

Final rinse with distilled.

Will go with this solution. But are distilled white vinegar the same thing as white vinegar ?

Thanks.

 

[TheRockMonsi]

I just got my 480 radiator in, and I was looking at all the things I need to do to properly prepare my WC setup. Anyway, is there anything I should do after flushing my radiator, maintenance wise for my loop? I'm cooling a CPU + GPU - do I need to flush those along with the pump/res?

Also, let's say I flush the rad out now, and then next week have the loop put together. Anything wrong with waiting a week after the flush?

 

[dave2z]

I'm not 100% positive, but I don't think there would be any harm in waiting a while after the flush, because the point of the flush is to get out flux leftover form soldering/welding during the radiator's manufacturing.

I hope that helped!

 

[Martinm210]

I'm lazy and just let my household water pressure and hot water heater do the work. Run it like this on medium/hot both directions for about 30 minutes and do a final rinse with distilled and call it good.

Just be careful with the household pressure (Can be upwards of 80psi and potentially damaging if improperly used). If you block the outlet port you could potentially damage the rad from all the pressure that's possible, but as long as it's flowing without restriction on the ports, you should be ok. Respect the pressure and you'll be fine though.

 

[TheRockMonsi]

So with all that being said, do I need to flush my water blocks as well? I already installed my GPU block on my video card, so it'll be sort of hard to do that, but if I have to I'll find a way.

 

[Martinm210]

You should, but not if they have already been installed. There isn't any flux in blocks, but sometimes there are shavings of copper or acetal or stainless that's loose inside. Fortunately, the cpu blocks also serve dual purpose as a strainer for any debris floating in a system. Next time you clean the loop, you'll find what you missed in the cpu block..

 

[huhh]

Save your pump, take your blocks apart before you put your loop together. It takes what 5 min?