In the list of heating devices, the leading place today is occupied by aluminum and bimetal radiators. The advantage of aluminum is its excellent thermal conductivity and low cost. So it turns out that such radiators are the most popular. Since there is a demand for these heating devices, manufacturers are releasing more and more of them.
As a result, the competition among manufacturers is simply overwhelming. Each of the sellers praises their product and tries to put competitors in a “black light”. What plumbers do not come up with so that customers come to them. Manufacturers also produce budget radiators, selling them to inexperienced customers at inflated prices.
What do sellers tell us?
I listened to a few plumbing vendors, looked up bloggers on YouTube. And here are the conclusions they all push:
- 1. Nothing good is produced in China.
- 2. It is better to take heavy radiators than light ones.
- 3. The radiator should be thick and wide, and a small device is not comme il faut
- 4. Expensive means high quality.
- 5. We pay attention to strength.
Chinese or domestic
There is an opinion that all goods made in China are unreliable and short-lived. Allegedly, domestic producers are much better, in Russia they do not produce anything bad.
Let's face it, manufacturers in any country can produce both good products and completely unusable ones. I advise you not to avoid Chinese radiators. It is quite possible that they will turn out to be an order of magnitude better than the Russian ones.
Heavy radiator - good radiator
Here I, perhaps, will not argue. The heavy weight of the radiator indicates that it has thick walls. The service life of such a device is likely to be long. But this statement does not always work, so be careful.
We buy only large radiators
In this case, the situation is similar with weight. It can be assumed that a large radiator will last longer than a small one. The statement is true for apartments with central heating, where a disgusting coolant flows through the pipes. But in private houses and small devices may be enough. Look at the situation.
The quality depends on the price
The expensive is not always of high quality. In fact, the quality of a radiator should not be determined by its price, since sellers can make a large mark-up even for an illiquid product.
Strength characteristics
I believe that aluminum cannot a priori be called a durable material. Accordingly, radiators with aluminum casing do not withstand severe mechanical damage. The strength of the device depends on the alloy. We will talk about this in more detail below.
What to look for when choosing heating appliances
Radiators in an aluminum case are more correctly called silumin. Unfortunately, many consider silumin to be a low-grade alloy, unreliable and short-lived.
Silumin is an aluminum-silicon alloy. It also contains other elements, but in smaller quantities. Manufacturers do not add silicon to the alloy out of greed. It ensures the durability and strength of the product.
The amount of silicon in the alloy determines the grade of the material and its heat transfer. Remember that if there is little silicon, then the heat transfer will be higher, and, accordingly, the cost of the radiator is higher. I believe that when choosing heating devices, you need to focus on heat transfer. And the rest of the characteristics are not so important.
If you buy a radiator with a high heat dissipation rate, it will most likely be heavy and large. Therefore, pay close attention to this criterion.
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