[Tom Wesenberg]

About 10 years ago I bought this sump pump at a local garage sale for $5. I bought it as a spare, but used it today for the first time since I bought it. To backflush the radiator you need a large water flow, something a garden hose doesn't give. I filled a large tub with water and bought some platic fittings from Menards to push the water into the bottom of the radiator and out the top, which is upside down. You can see the water really flowed, as the second picture shows the water flowing over the side of the tub. I didn't have much junk in the radiator, still this is enough junk to plug about 6 tubes. I let the pump run for about 10 miutes during the backflushing.

Also shown is the small sink drain and scrub pad I bought at Walmart to act as a filter to guard against any future junk plugging the tops of the radiator tubes. The scrub pad needs to be unrolled to fit nicely into the hose. To show that this wasn't going to be too restrictive I put it in the top hose and connected it to the sump pump. There is just as much flow as not having the filter. Not shown is my thermostat, which will also be installed again.