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So it occurs to me that I've had my car for 4 years now and I've never flushed the coolant. It was bright and shiny when I bought it, so I know it was replaced prior to sale.
I've got about 34K on it since then and with winter approaching I thought it might be a good idea to just do a drain and refill. Last winter, I noticed a slight coolant smell when the heat first came on, but I never seemed to loose coolant and it being winter, I really didn't want to do a heater core in -10*. Summer plans and all. So...it didn't happen over the summer. And now again, I'm getting the faintest smell of coolant when I turn on the heat, but loosing no coolant. For the record, I know what has to be done to replace the heater core (FSM FTW) and it makes me not want to do it unless I absolutely have to.
Thoughts on the coolant though? Drain and refill? Power flush? Detergent?

You have to drain all the coolant out first if you want to flush the radiator. disconnect the upper and lower coolant hose and get a garden hose into the upper open of the radiator. No detergent or power is needed if your radiator is not rust or heavily clogged i think... just use clean water to flush it with normal pressure for a while and then radiator should be done with the flush.
i used to have some coolant leaking and cause smells, after i used bar stop leaking stuff everything went back to normal. Not sure if that product is good for the cooling system. any ideas?

That's pretty much what I figured. I think I'll leave the heater core alone--I'm sure whatever crud is in it is keeping the hole or weep plugged.

If you are worried about it, Prestone sells a couple of cleaners you can use. I used Prestone Super Flush before in my truck, where the cooling system was never really maintained all that well.

The coolant flush I bought a while back was simple enough to use. You drain the coolant, then fill it with water and the coolant flush liquid. Run it for 15 minutes or so, then drain and refill with properly mixed coolant.

I've heard mixed reviews about the stop leak products. Some have zero problems, and some end up needing a new radiator. I guess it depends on how big of a leak it is to begin with.

I heard you can not use the stop leak products if there are sludge clog the radiator since it will help to clog more in it. Maybe that's why. I used it right after swapping in a new radiator. And it does stop leaking and the smell. So I think maybe that is the difference.

However I heard some of the stop leak products are made of black pepper... Is that the way they make it?