Cast Iron Radiator - How to Clean & Fire Safety

[Cypress]

I have a tall old fashioned cast iron radiator in the front of my house. It's forced hot water and lovely warm steady heat. Everything seems to be working just fine.

I see lots of dust cooties behind and around the coils. My vacuum cleaner cannot get the dirt out. What do I do? And, I'd like to give it an overall cleaning and paint. Is that a DIY beyond the average homeowner? There's no way I can probably move the thing if I could disconnect it.

It's almost flush to the wall, not touching but very close. Can I slip a piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil behind it to direct the heat out? Or, is that sounding like a fire safety problem?

[Williamsmith]

Can you use a can of condensed gas electronic dust cleaner to blow the dust out of the unit?

[bae]

If you want to put a reflective liner behind it, I'd recommend using a piece of metal - a thin sheet of sheet metal won't be terribly expensive. I wouldn't use cardboard, it is great fuel for fires (I don't think the radiator would ever ignite it, but some other ignition source could), and placing it up on your wall like that seems a bad way to go.

It's probably not necessary to achieve efficiency though - the radiator is still heating the wall behind it, which is then reradiating the heat back into the room nicely, and serving as thermal mass.

[Cypress]

The canned air is an option, but it would blow the dust particles everywhere. Unless I can set up the vacuum to run as I spray the air. Sounds complex. I just thought, somebody must make a mini vacuum or crevice tool to clean computer or machinery, delicate stuff. I wonder if there's a flexible crevice tube on the market with a long reach? I can see that being used on the dryer too in the lint catch compartment.

[sweetana3]

What about a round dryer lint brush? Amazon has them for about $14. Long with bristles all around to brush and remove lint from dryers. Seems it would also work well behind and between the coils of a hot water radiator? or at least it would loosen the dust to be sucked up by the vacumn. (Note: I am a believer in letting sleeping dust stay asleep and in place for the most part.)