My aunt has a house with gravity coal boiler and cast iron radiators. Now, those radiators were one of the first ever radiators to be made in USSR at the time, so these radiators were installed in 1924, my aunt wasn't even born at that time, and never got cleaned, never got disasembled once trough 93 years or use. So this year the boiler cracked from too much heat, and there was a BIG, my boy a MASSIVE mess in basement. The blackness from the 100 yo sludge stained everything so badly, that even bleach 100% couldn't clean the white linoleum. So she installed a combi boiler for the heating system and hot water. She turns it on, and none of the radiators are getting hot - after 3 minutes the boiler shut down and it made an awful sound. We took it apart and the new boiler filter had 2 inches thick black hard bits layer on it so compacted that water were not even able to go trough. The built in circulator wroke it's impellers. So we had to change filter and circulator. Then She called a plumber company to clean her radiators out. They tried to screw off unions from radiators and all pipes broke instantly in wall and from the radiators, the mess was all on wallpaper, carpet, furniture. . . D: so they took off radiators and tried to flush them trough and about a bucket of very thick, almost tar-like substance with large hard black metal bits gone out of every radiators. My mind was blown, so they flushed them trough and after one hour 12 radiators, each 20 segments were flushed and cleaned. They did in a street, on a asphalt. The street got black as all hell, and still after A WEEK IT'S STILL AS BLACK AS IT WAS RIGHT AFTER!!! two radiators then after cleaning showed some cracking and were replaced with new models, but they insisted we keep as much of the original stuff as we can, so we did. So they ran new polipropelline piping for heating, hooked it up, and one thing is for surtain - the radiators after cleaning got hot in like 4 minutes, as before the four buckets of coal would heat them in like 4 hours and only a slight bit. They got how now in 4 mins and got scolding hot, my aunt said that they never were so hot in like 60 years. So we took down all the remaining cast iron piping from the basement, and all 3 inch lines were so full of setiment (or sludge) that inside 3 inch pipe there was left like 0.5 inch big hole for the water to pass trough. . . Talk about old radiators , huh? ;D but shes now very happy and They said that these radiators are very thick metal (like 1 inch thick cast iron walls) so they said that the old radiators will last another 100 years without any problems, cool hey? :D P.S. As for old boiler, as we took it down and carried out it crumbled in like 10000 different pieces and once again flooded the basement with hard cast iron shards and tar like sludge. . . So basically we had to refurbish the basement and the inside oft he house, cause everything was covered in black. And that sludge was so smelly and disqusting, almost like someone put a cat inside the boiler back then and filled it with water, I tell you, the odor was horrible, like rotting flesh, mixed with rotting garlic and onions and old rusty wet metal. . .
I'm not kidding mate, last week I picked up a nasty virus and my arse was like that radiator, on the hour every hour. It also happens to my flatmate about 10am most mornings as well.
How did you guys even manage to carry lose long radiators outside? I tried carrying one half the width but about 3ft high down to the first floor with my brother and said forget it before going down the steps and said it’s not worth dying over.
Not a great idea to ever move these ! Each section leaks easily when lifted etc and a nightmare to try and fix . Leave in situ , drain down. add cleaner and use the right connectors to flush through a hose etc
My aunt has a house with gravity coal boiler and cast iron radiators. Now, those radiators were one of the first ever radiators to be made in USSR at the time, so these radiators were installed in 1924, my aunt wasn't even born at that time, and never got cleaned, never got disasembled once trough 93 years or use. So this year the boiler cracked from too much heat, and there was a BIG, my boy a MASSIVE mess in basement. The blackness from the 100 yo sludge stained everything so badly, that even bleach 100% couldn't clean the white linoleum. So she installed a combi boiler for the heating system and hot water. She turns it on, and none of the radiators are getting hot - after 3 minutes the boiler shut down and it made an awful sound. We took it apart and the new boiler filter had 2 inches thick black hard bits layer on it so compacted that water were not even able to go trough. The built in circulator wroke it's impellers. So we had to change filter and circulator. Then She called a plumber company to clean her radiators out. They tried to screw off unions from radiators and all pipes broke instantly in wall and from the radiators, the mess was all on wallpaper, carpet, furniture. . . D: so they took off radiators and tried to flush them trough and about a bucket of very thick, almost tar-like substance with large hard black metal bits gone out of every radiators. My mind was blown, so they flushed them trough and after one hour 12 radiators, each 20 segments were flushed and cleaned. They did in a street, on a asphalt. The street got black as all hell, and still after A WEEK IT'S STILL AS BLACK AS IT WAS RIGHT AFTER!!! two radiators then after cleaning showed some cracking and were replaced with new models, but they insisted we keep as much of the original stuff as we can, so we did. So they ran new polipropelline piping for heating, hooked it up, and one thing is for surtain - the radiators after cleaning got hot in like 4 minutes, as before the four buckets of coal would heat them in like 4 hours and only a slight bit. They got how now in 4 mins and got scolding hot, my aunt said that they never were so hot in like 60 years. So we took down all the remaining cast iron piping from the basement, and all 3 inch lines were so full of setiment (or sludge) that inside 3 inch pipe there was left like 0.5 inch big hole for the water to pass trough. . . Talk about old radiators , huh? ;D but shes now very happy and They said that these radiators are very thick metal (like 1 inch thick cast iron walls) so they said that the old radiators will last another 100 years without any problems, cool hey? :D
P.S.
As for old boiler, as we took it down and carried out it crumbled in like 10000 different pieces and once again flooded the basement with hard cast iron shards and tar like sludge. . . So basically we had to refurbish the basement and the inside oft he house, cause everything was covered in black. And that sludge was so smelly and disqusting, almost like someone put a cat inside the boiler back then and filled it with water, I tell you, the odor was horrible, like rotting flesh, mixed with rotting garlic and onions and old rusty wet metal. . .
Thanks for sharing the story. I'm gonna flush mine once a year from now.
My mom has a very old one too and I do not even want to know how bad it is. thanks for sharing the story!
Interesting story, glad to have come across it!
I'm not kidding mate, last week I picked up a nasty virus and my arse was like that radiator, on the hour every hour. It also happens to my flatmate about 10am most mornings as well.
This aged well
My building manager don't know anything about flushing out the radiator 😂😂😂
So you empty out your filthy radiators all over your patio, so your young kids can walk it all back into the house 🤣
How did you guys even manage to carry lose long radiators outside? I tried carrying one half the width but about 3ft high down to the first floor with my brother and said forget it before going down the steps and said it’s not worth dying over.
Ah listening and watching this video reminds me of that time on holidaying in Holland when that dam burst.....or that time i ate pink chicken
Not a great idea to ever move these ! Each section leaks easily when lifted etc and a nightmare to try and fix . Leave in situ , drain down. add cleaner and use the right connectors to flush through a hose etc
When you get the shits in Spain 😂
Where did you buy these mate.
My arse after eating a bad curry
Pe fundal se aude și Românește, urmează și la mine sa curat doua calorifere.
In fact it is Polish - the guy doing the flushing is from Poland
Taco Bell.
Sixth of may 2013