Repairing heavy cast iron pipes?

[MasterPlumbersKeymaster]

we just bought an old home that once had hot water radiant heat. we are looking into re-connecting the hot water heat but noticed that some are cracked.

the radiators are 100 year old, heavy cast iron. can they be repaired?

thanks

[SylvanLMPParticipant]

Yes, Cast Iron radiators can be repaired, depending where the split is located.

The crack is normally stopped by drilling a small hole at the end of each side of the crack to prevent this crack from getting bigger during the welding/brazing process. The Cast Iron must be slowly heated and VERY Slowly cooled to prevent more cracking.

Then using either a cast Iron welding rod Or bronze filler (brazing)the crack can be filled.

There is something called Black and White which is a sulfur stick that is can give great results DEPENDING on temperature and pressure.

What I normally do is remove the bad section if I cant get a good weld position and just remove the one or two bad sections.

Contact either a Licensed master plumber or a good welder from a boiler company.

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