How to paint cast iron batteries: preparation and painting

Is it possible to paint cast iron batteries?

Cast iron heaters have been used for a long time due to the thermophysical properties of the metal. It is strong, heat-intensive, anti-corrosion, and has the ability to withstand high coolant pressure.

Modern cast iron batteries are perfect for retro or loft design finishes

Purchased batteries are sold unpainted; only factory primer is applied to the sections, so they require full-scale painting.

It is recommended to paint cast iron batteries in an apartment in the following cases:

Change in shade due to fading.
Heterogeneity of the coating - bubbles, chips, cracks and other damage.
When performing a major overhaul of the heating system.
During the renovation of the interior of the premises.
Improving the performance characteristics of the protective layer - resistance to temperature changes and high humidity.

Battery paint

The paint for painting heating radiators must be resistant to temperature influences and protect the metal from corrosion. Oil paints are no longer used today. Main types of paint for painting batteries :

Paint for painting Tikkurila Termal batteries

alkyd enamels are cheap, but turn yellow and can withstand temperatures up to 90°C; but over time they may crack or swell. The most popular solution nowadays is Alpina Heizkorperlack enamel. Sold in cans of 0.75 l (595 rubles) and 2.5 l (1731 rubles)
water-dispersion or water-emulsion acrylic enamels - dry quickly, do not smell, do not turn yellow. Experts recommend Tikkurila Euro 20 for painting. It costs 450-550 rubles/l, depending on the volume of the purchased batch. It is believed that it can even be used to paint hot batteries. Only at a good pace - Tikkurila dries quickly
acrylic enamels on solvents - in addition to all the advantages of the previous ones, they are also moisture resistant. They can be applied to metal without prior priming.

What paint to paint cast iron radiators

The paint is selected according to the specific characteristics of the battery, and the heating device is carefully prepared. Otherwise, the renewed coating will not last long.

The optimal paint for radiators must meet the following requirements:

Heat resistance. The paint on the radiator must withstand temperatures in the heating circuit up to 95 degrees and not deteriorate for the period guaranteed by the manufacturer.
Adhesion. It is required that the components provide excellent adhesion to the work surface being painted.
Anti-corrosion protection – the paint must contain protective elements.
Battery color stability.
Wear resistance.
Safe use - the paint should not contain toxic ingredients.

The best paint for cast iron batteries must meet absolutely all the requirements, and not just some points.

Alkyd enamels

Positive traits:

resistance to high temperatures;
wear resistance, due to which the neat appearance of the batteries is maintained for a long period.

Such properties make it possible to paint heating radiators. Alkyd enamel protects devices from rust, increasing their service life. When applied, it lays flat, so no adjustments are required to the coating. There are a large number of shades of alkyd enamel, so you can always choose the right tone to suit your interior.

Alkyd enamels for painting heating radiators.

Alkyd enamel is stronger than most analogues. Its disadvantage is the release of toxic fumes, the reason lies in the solvent content in the composition.

The smell is strong, dissipates slowly - 1 day after painting. During this time, you need to leave your home, and the room should be ventilated. Sometimes the smell is faint even after drying.

When looking for an answer to the question of how to paint a heating radiator at home, pay attention to the ability of paintwork materials to maintain the original tone.

Alkyd enamel quickly loses its shade and turns yellow, although it continues to retain its strength and other properties. The yellowness is more pronounced if the color chosen is white. When purchasing alkyd enamel, it is better to consider darker tones with a glossy sheen.

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What color to paint cast iron batteries

A snow-white radiator is a traditional type of heating device located under a window. Painting to match the window color is the easiest and most affordable option. Radiators in a black and gray palette are becoming quite popular today. There is an opinion that a black radiator heats up faster and emits thermal energy longer. Such designs look good in industrial-style rooms.

A successful and extraordinary solution for suburban cottages is radiators painted to match the walls. This design will not require their disguise. All that is needed is to successfully integrate the device into the style of the room.

In children's rooms, radiator sections can be painted in different colors

Interesting battery color ideas

The white radiator is a classic that we have become accustomed to since Soviet times, when almost all houses were equipped with the same type of cast-iron radiators.

The color of the heating device, if it affects heat transfer, is only to a very small extent, so nothing prevents you from painting the radiator in accordance with the interior of the room.

The battery can be made almost invisible if you paint it the same color as the walls

Today you can find many interesting design solutions where the radiator is one of the decorating elements that harmoniously fits into the surrounding space.

On the contrary, you can build a composition using contrast, and make the battery an accent that attracts attention, painting it in a bright rich color. The red battery against the background of a light interior looks unusual and very impressive

The red battery against the background of a light interior looks unusual and very impressive

Today it is very fashionable to paint objects using the ombre technique. Its essence lies in the fact that the first sections of the battery are painted in pale, subtle shades, all subsequent ones are a tone or two darker, and for the last sections very bright saturated colors are used.

A battery painted using the ombre technique will be an excellent decoration for any interior.

The most creative design ideas can be implemented in a children's room.

You can decorate the radiator sections in different rich colors, paint the battery with interesting designs, turn it into a zebra or a set of colored pencils

Paint consumption for a cast iron radiator

It is unrealistic to independently determine the area of a cast iron battery section due to the complex shape configuration. Manufacturers of the heating device indicate such information in the passport. Batteries have standard sizes. Thus, the area of one edge of the MS-140-500 battery is 0.244 m2, and the improved section of this device with an interaxial distance of 0.3 m is 0.208 m2.

In order to determine the area of a cast iron battery, you must:

find out the name of the modification and manufacturer;
find out the heating area of one element - the ribs;
multiply this value by the number of sections.

For example, in an MS-140-500 battery, which has 12 fins, the paint surface area will be 2.92 square meters. m. Next, the total volume of dye is determined based on the paint consumption rates specified by the manufacturer and the number of paint layers.

In order to quickly paint a cast iron battery with heat-resistant paint, you can use a spray bottle. In this option, for one cast iron radiator with an area of approximately 0.25 m2, about 20 g of paint is required in one layer and approximately 40 g in two. If the work is done with a brush, one layer will require 35 g, and two layers will require 65 g of paint.

Preparing cast iron batteries for painting

The preparation of batteries and pipes begins with removing the old paint layer. There are 2 simple methods for cleaning radiators:

Mechanical - using a steel brush or an attachment to an electric drill. The coating is removed down to the metal surface; for this reason, this option will require a lot of time and physical stress on the part of the performer. One drawback is the difficulty of working in inaccessible areas. A special attachment for an electric drill facilitates the cleaning process, and it also makes it possible to thoroughly treat the entire area of the device, including in hard-to-reach areas.
The chemical method involves the use of special compounds based on acids and thinners that reduce the adhesion of the layer to the base metal. The surface is carefully coated in accordance with the instructions until the paint softens deeply. Then the old coating is removed with a spatula, grinder or stiff brush.

Preparing to paint the radiator

Before preparing the battery for painting, you should remember that preliminary cleaning requires not only the old, but also the new battery, where there will always be some unevenness and dirty areas. The surface of the radiator must be thoroughly cleaned and then degreased.

Not everyone can determine when painting radiators can begin without any preparation, and when it is simply impossible to do without all the procedures described above.

To do this, the following three states of the heating radiator can be taken into account:

The old paint layer does not have any cracks or chips. This means that the previous painting of the heating radiators was done as correctly as possible, so in this case you can proceed directly to applying a fresh coating.
If the surface of the battery has small areas with chipped and peeling paint, this means that these areas require sanding to obtain a smooth surface, and only then painting.
Provided that the old coating has come off almost completely, painting radiators can only be done with serious preparatory work, which will require the use of a brush equipped with iron bristles, or a special washing solution with the addition of a certain amount of alkali.

It happens that areas exposed to rust appear on an old radiator. In this case, you can use various kinds of compounds that destroy this plaque, which are always available in any hardware store.

Before painting an old battery, you need to thoroughly wash the heating device to remove dust that has settled on it and treat it with any liquid that can degrease the surface, for example, acetone.

Do cast iron batteries need to be primed before painting?

In order to perform high-quality painting of heating devices with your own hands, you need to carefully prepare the surfaces.

Dirt is removed with a brush, and paint with a spatula or chemicals.

Preliminary steps include cleaning the battery from old paint, cleaning areas damaged by corrosion, degreasing and priming.

After paint removal is completed, the metal is sanded with a steel brush specially designed for an electric drill or grinder. When performing these operations, personal protective equipment is used.

The cleaned surface is treated with sandpaper and degreased with a solvent. A primer with anti-corrosion properties is applied to the treated surface to provide reliable protection against rust formation and increase paint adhesion to the metal surface.

Attention! Some manufacturers allow you to use paint diluted with a solvent instead of a primer - 5% of the volume.

How to paint a cast iron battery at home

It is allowed to paint the battery with any paint composition, the main thing is that it is heat-resistant.

Apply the composition using a curved or regular brush

Sequence of the painting process:

First you will need to paint the cast iron battery inside. Apply a layer of paint between sections, painting hard-to-reach areas, using a flexible brush.
If the paint does not adhere to the cast iron, use a gauze cloth laid in a bundle. It is placed in the middle of the sections, the covering material is carefully applied to the middle and the ends are pulled alternately.
Paint over the upper area and accessible areas.
You need to move from top to bottom, painting in several layers.
A significant part of today's compositions are applied to the surface at a temperature of 15-20 degrees, which is why the heated battery needs to be cooled before painting.

How to beautifully paint cast iron batteries

A significant number of apartments and individual houses are equipped with standard cast iron heating devices, which have undergone absolutely no changes for more than half a century. Renovation improves any room, introducing new modern design ideas, but cast iron radiators remain unchanged. In order to change the situation and implement new ideas on old equipment, they use decorations.

Before performing decoupage on a heating device, it is necessary to thoroughly clean the heating surface of the cast iron radiator down to metal.

You can treat the radiator with a piece of sandpaper, if you can achieve a flat, smooth surface, you don’t have to remove all the old paint.

The second preliminary stage will be washing the device with water to remove any remaining dirt. Then wait until the battery is completely dry and cover its surface with white enamel.

Important! The painted radiator must be left for 24 hours to dry completely.

Decoupage uses ready-made drawings on rice paper.

First you need to calculate the possibility of completely closing the ribs, since the normal dimensions of such paper are 34x100 cm. Most likely, it will not be enough to completely cover the surface of the cast-iron battery and you will need to complete the picture. For this reason, it is necessary to select drawings where the upper and lower parts are not difficult to modify: land, sea, clouds.

Measure the width of the edge, cut the image into strips

Glue them to the surface of a cast iron battery using standard PVA. When gluing, the strips are carefully leveled to remove air. After the glue has completely dried, they begin to complete the drawing, paint over the remaining parts of the elements, mixing the tones to create the required color scheme. The fragments are also glued with PVA glue. In order to give the applied coating strength and good appearance, after drying, the surfaces are treated with heat-resistant varnish in 2 layers.

You can paint a cast iron battery to look antique. To do this, they resort to stencils with cut-out designs or draw unique monograms with a tube with a thin spout.

No less popular today are decorations for cast iron batteries - soft covers. This option not only helps to decorate it, but also makes it safe for children.

Other paint options for radiators

Hammer paints perfectly hide all the unevenness of cast iron radiators.

If for a number of reasons it is not possible to apply the options discussed above, you can choose one of the following:

Paints containing silicate resin. When applied, a dense coating is created. The advantage is moderate elasticity, as a result of which the appearance of the finish is maintained throughout the entire service life of the heating device. The paint adheres well to the metal, and it is not necessary to prepare the surface before applying it. The disadvantage of silicate resin is its intense odor.
Hammer paints. They belong to alkyd compositions, they help create a hammered effect, artificially age the surface (cracks appear on it), and allow you to obtain a coating of uneven thickness and structure.
Based on aluminum powder. Another name is silverfish. Advantages: resistance to the influence of extreme temperature values, the ability to apply both to old batteries and to new ones after they have been prepared. The paint emits an intense odor, so you will need to leave the room after painting.

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Useful tips

In order to do a high-quality job of painting a cast-iron battery, it is better to study the recommendations of the masters, and only then begin specific actions.

Simple expert advice to help paint cast iron radiators correctly:

The coating with a paint layer must be carried out on a cold cast-iron battery.
Apply paint on top - in this case, it will be possible to eliminate unwanted smudges.
In order not to stain your hands and clothes, it is advisable to paint the internal areas first, and then the external ones.
Apply paint in 2 thin layers, which is more correct than coating with one thick one. A double layer of paint has much higher heat transfer from the radiator. Apply the next layer to the cast iron battery only after the first one has completely dried.

What color paint should I choose?

During socialism, batteries were painted green - rust is best visible against a green background. The sooner you notice, the sooner you stop corrosion.

Coloring radiator radiator with flowers

Then silver and steel colors came into fashion, then bronze and gold. Aluminum and bimetallic batteries are painted creamy white.

But batteries, as a rule, are located - whether in the living room, in the bedroom or in the kitchen - in a visible place, and creative ideas for painting batteries can improve and make the interior of the room more stylish.

A favorite theme when painting cast iron batteries is the “zebra” pattern: black section, white section, black section, white section; We paint the pipe to match the tail. More inspired homeowners paint the radiator sections with flowers on tall stems that stand on the hind legs of meerkats, or even paint them like Khokhloma. There are countless talents in Great Rus'.