Rad cleaning acording to Marci aka Thermochill

[MikalCarbine]

How does one recommend cleaning a block without vinegar?

[drak3]

I have a boiler in my flat for my hot water. So... I just took my PA120.2 out of the box, uncovered only the holes (kept the bubble wrap on to protect it and my hands lol) and went in the bathtub. Hot water in, shake and repeat. Since is so easy with the tap water (if you have a boiler, so no kettles and mess) I flushes it maybe 50 times

The rad now is cleaner than clean and that smell went away. Also without the bubble wrap, you definatley need gloves. It burns for real. The heat excghanging works :p

[serialk11r]

But no one (AFAIK) has proved otherwise either... maybe its why people have clouding.

A little bit of corrosion is not going to hurt anything if its controlled... if you care about that little bit of corrosion then I guess you are going to have to set up a sterile/vacuum enviroment...

All I know is I am going to try running boiling distilled water through my loop initially to clean it.

Okay sorry I'm bringing this back up, but I want to clear things up a bit.
Vinegar is 5% acetic acid, 95% water right?
Acetic acid is slightly polar, and has the useful property of being able to dissolve polar substances. Keep in mind that's PURE acetic acid.
Now we water it down so its 5%. If you put a drop of oil in, will it dissolve? I don't think so
Lets take a look at alcohol. It also can somewhat dissolve non-polar substances. But we can get alcohol at high concentrations without risks to health and the stuff around us (acetic acid is highly corrosive ). If you want to clean something that isn't going to dissolve in water, you might want to try alcohol
Well actually, unless you're someone like me and have some rad filled with disgusting greasy stuff, black and white flaky particles coming out, then hot water is more effective. Water like you know is referred to as the "universal solvent" because it is so effective at dissolving things, and it can dissolve pretty big amounts of solute. And the higher the temperature, for most substances, the higher concentration of solute you can have in the solution.
Sorry for bringing this up again, I couldn't help it
Waiting for personal attacks...

[Bun-Bun]

Okay sorry I'm bringing this back up, but I want to clear things up a bit.
Vinegar is 5% acetic acid, 95% water right?
Acetic acid is slightly polar, and has the useful property of being able to dissolve polar substances. Keep in mind that's PURE acetic acid.
Now we water it down so its 5%. If you put a drop of oil in, will it dissolve? I don't think so
Lets take a look at alcohol. It also can somewhat dissolve non-polar substances. But we can get alcohol at high concentrations without risks to health and the stuff around us (acetic acid is highly corrosive ). If you want to clean something that isn't going to dissolve in water, you might want to try alcohol
Well actually, unless you're someone like me and have some rad filled with disgusting greasy stuff, black and white flaky particles coming out, then hot water is more effective. Water like you know is referred to as the "universal solvent" because it is so effective at dissolving things, and it can dissolve pretty big amounts of solute. And the higher the temperature, for most substances, the higher concentration of solute you can have in the solution.
Sorry for bringing this up again, I couldn't help it
Waiting for personal attacks...

Not sure why you are bringing it back up. I for one havent been challenging it. All I have been using to clean my loop is distilled water and boiling it for flushing.

[Weapon]

With the possible exception of Marci, I suspect I have ran many more substances through copper based rads than most by a long shot. Vinegar can toast a rad if you use it incorrectly...I know because I have eaten holes through thin-walled copper rads and heatercores while running tests with it as well as a wide-range of chemicals while working out a method to effectively clean weaponcores. Needless to say, that really sucks when it kills a monstercore that was other wise perfect...if you have no clue what a monstercore is, see the attached pic.

Really effective heat exchangers by their nature are fairly thin-walled. The wrong cleaner (or maybe the right cleaner at the wrong temperature...) can produce a nice sprinkler effect from your rad. If the flux used in the new ones is water-soluble (and I would readily take Marci's word on that one) then using anything beyond that is an unnecessary risk.

“But I want the inside of my rad to shine like a copper mirror…”
With an uber-thin water-copper-air interface, do ya think that is going to lower your temps to a point you could measure even if you are using a $900 thermometer like the one sitting on my bench?? Unless there is so much trash inside the rad that it is blocking an insane amount of water from going through any of the flow channels, I seriously doubt it. If anything, worry about the dust and other crap that will eventually restrict the airflow through the fins of the rad.