Radiator cleaning with spray foam products?

[jyoutz]

This tool does the trick. Water or air. You can use the water tool after spray foam. The shape of it allows you to get behind the radiator and flush forward.

Amazon.com

 

[EddieWalker]

I tried some sort of spray that was very highly rated on Amazon. I was hoping it would clean out some of the dirt that was inside the fins on my zero turn mower. It's water cooled and the radiator sits flat on top of the engine. With multiple tries of spraying it on, waiting for it to work, and doing it over and over again, until the can was empty, I noticed no improvement. For me, it was a total waste of time and money.

Like others have commented, I was worried about using water on my radiator because the dust would stick to the water and make it worse.

What I didn't realize was how quickly the water evaporates once the engine is warmed up.

I don't know how hot the radiator for the AC gets, but I'm guessing that it will dry out the water pretty quickly once it's warmed up too.

For my house HVAC system, the guys that have been here to work on it all use water in a one gallon pump sprayer. The same thing that I use for spraying for weeds around my house. I asked about the spray cans, and they said that water works the best.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Today is a rainy day, so I took my 2 other tractors into the shop and blew out the radiators with air first, then i sprayed a foam product on them and washed them out with water. They look cleaner now than they did before, but they were not very dirty. I did not see a lot of dirt coming out when I washed with the water.

Anyway, I feel better now. Hopefully I did some good.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Today is a rainy day, so I took my 2 other tractors into the shop and blew out the radiators with air first, then i sprayed a foam product on them and washed them out with water. They look cleaner now than they did before, but they were not very dirty. I did not see a lot of dirt coming out when I washed with the water.

Anyway, I feel better now. Hopefully I did some good.

Trust me you did some good.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

So far I've done 3 tractors and my skid steer and my Kawasaki Mule with the spray foam. It seems to have made a difference on the Mule for sure. The others, it's hard to tell. I just did the skid steer today. I've been blowing them out with air first, then apply the foam stuff, then hit it with the water hose.

 

[eddieirvine]

I used to work as a machinist and was around the guys that worked hoist trucks they used something that worked really well i wrote down what was in it they bought it by the 55 gal barrels we also used it to clean up gear boxes and such, Anyway i found this same cleaner at my local dollar general and other place it is called Awesome cleaner and works great for cleaning out a radiator, great product

 

[LouNY]

I use the foaming sprays occasionally, it seems like the radiator genies both the air and water do a good job most of the time.
If a person has a cabbed tractor with AC you have one more heat exchanger sitting in front of the radiator. Most tractors will have the engine radiator, then a hydraulic cooler, then the AC puts another exchanger on there. I have noticed that it is very difficult to get all three clean from the backside of the radiator. Some units will have one or both of the exchangers on a pivot so they can be swung out to get cleaned from the backside. If they don't it does take a long time and multiple cleanings to get all the debri out of all of them. Usually several applications of the cleaning foam and water rinses.

 

[ssgp2]

Condenser cleaners work well on condensers. Evaporator cleaners aren't for condensers and don't work well for heavy soil, even though they are a foaming cleaner. To answer your question. Yes they do work and are safe. The key is to rinse with water VERY well. Some radiators are horizontal/flat as EddieWalker has, those must be dried before using because the orientation won't let the water run down and off the fins, so the debris/mud will only dry and make it worse. A leaf blower works well to blow the water off and dry the radiator/condenser. As others have said, I wash mine at the end of the day and blow the radiator with a leaf blower to expidite the removal of water, but do use a leaf blower throughout the day. For reference, I've been an HVAC tech for 27 years and wash coils frequently.

 

[SARG]

What I noticed was the cans I bought in 2022 were 6 dollars and now they're over 9 "on sale".