Radiator cleaning with spray foam products?

[Complete Turf Care]

I have an older Kubota tractor that the air conditioner has been giving me problems lately.

Today I had a local mechanic come look at it and he said the condenser was probably plugged with dirt/dust.

He blew it out with air and added some freon and now it seems to work.

I asked him about the spray foam products for cleaning and he has not used them, but said he plans to try them soon. I went to the hardware store and picked up a can and sprayed it on all of the radiator/coolers on this tractor. The foam did seem to get to all of the cooling fins, and I let it sit for a few minutes as the directions said, then washed it all out with a water hose.

My question is: Does anyone have any experience with these products? Do they work as advertised? Do they cause any damage?

When we had problems with the AC last week, we were on a job and did not have an air compressor nearby to blow out the fins. We did have a water hose and we would stop about every 3 hours and wash out what we could get to. Doing this did help a little. The problem is you can't get too much of the fins with a water hose. We were in very dusty conditions. If these spray foam products work, we could have sprayed everything and then washed it out with water.

 

[Fixastuff]

I used the foam on excavator and it got the gummed up dirty fins clean. For normal dusty cleaning a battery leafy blower does well for me.

 

[4570Man]

I don’t like to wash a radiator unless it’s the end of the day and I’m going home. It seems like the dust would stick in the water if you go back to work immediately. A leaf blower does pretty good to clean one and it’s less effort to transport.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I don’t like to wash a radiator unless it’s the end of the day and I’m going home. It seems like the dust would stick in the water if you go back to work immediately. A leaf blower does pretty good to clean one and it’s less effort to transport.

I agree that washing is not the best way, especially during a workday. However, on the job last week, it was our only option, and it did help a little.

And I like the idea of leaf blower.

However, my question is if the foam products actually work. Do they do any damage? I think some contain some sort of acid. Could the acid harm any of the other parts of the tractor? I would mainly use these on days we are not working but doing routine maintenance.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I have been spraying coil cleaner on radiator fins for years with zero harm, you can actually watch the foam bring dirt and trash, seeds, grass, etc right out of the fins, but I like some others have said do this on an off day when the fins can be cleaned out and dry real good prior to going back into dusty conditions, I use a leaf blower on the job almost everyday usually when I am done.

 

[number two]

CRC 03196
Good Example.
Stay Cool!

 

[jyoutz]

Get a radiator genie. Look them up on Amazon. You get both cleaning rods in a package (air and water).

 

[Tinhack]

I have an extended reach blow gun that works. It's the same as radiator genie but cheaper. It allows me to reach in and blow the dirt and chaff out from the back side of the radiator.

 

[Panik]

My question is: Does anyone have any experience with these products? Do they work as advertised? Do they cause any damage?

The only thing I might suggest as part of answer to your question is:

If you're friendly with any HVAC folks, have a conversation with them about what product they use in cleaning aluminum fins on residential and/or commercial condensers...I've had the conversation a couple times and honestly can't remember any product names, but most of them have been pretty emphatically specific on using only water or a limited number brand products specific to cleaning condenser fins.

Asking probably amounts to a needless bit of reassurance, but they way I figure it they would be in the best position to guide you about a product that works and does not present any risks of corrosion or damage. YMMV

 

[rScotty]

When we had problems with the AC last week, we were on a job and did not have an air compressor nearby to blow out the fins. We did have a water hose and we would stop about every 3 hours and wash out what we could get to. Doing this did help a little. The problem is you can't get too much of the fins with a water hose. We were in very dusty conditions. If these spray foam products work, we could have sprayed everything and then washed it out with water.

Wowsers! A real 21st century tractor problem! If someone had asked me back in the 1950s what I thought tractor mechanics would be dealing with in the next century, AC wouldn't even had made my sci fi list. So thanks for posting that question.

I use dish soap & water in a spray bottle and then stroke the fins with a long handled house-painter's brush to foam-clean engine cooling radiators - it ought to work for AC radiators too.

I agree that it is a de-greasing foam forced between the fins that does the job. When soapy foam is washed out with a weak stream of water sprayed counter to the normal air glow, lots of tiny particles and dirty water flows out - much more than with plain water or air.. And no harm is done. Where all the crud comes from mystifies me. After all, the AC system has what looks like a decent filter.

I like the idea of spray foam, altough reading up on the CRC 03196 SDS certificate, it has a pH of 13.3 ......that's a pretty powerful base to be spraying on ucoated aluminum AC fins.... if that is what the fins are made of.
Dish soap pH is only around 9, and pH is a logarithmic scale.

So If the AC rad fins look like aluminum, I'd probably try the spray first on some junk aluminum in the shop to see how it reacts. Go from there.

rScotty

 

[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".