removing limescale best methods

[ambrosia]

whats the best method to remove limescale build up out of a hot water cylinder

had a santon direct unvented cylinder today, managed to poke out 2kg through the hole left when i removed the drain off valve. took ages and was only about a third of what was there

i'm hoping one of you is going to tell me of an easier chemical flush method as my pokey screw driver technique is pants

 

[ShaunCorbs]

change the cylinder would be the quickest method, but you can try some bio limescale remover

 

[lame plumber]

beat me to it

 

[stani]

Move to Manchester lime scale is unheard of here

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Move to Manchester lime scale is unheard of here

or to wales

 

[joni os]

Stay in Manchester. Too many English in Wales already.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Stay in Manchester. Too many English in Wales already.

there are and other ones

 

[SimonG]

Vinegar, strong vinegar.

 

[REDSAW]

calgon

 

[BLOD]

i usually remove the bottom immersion element and use a wetvac

 

[Fallon1982]

quote to fit a water softener :smilewinkgrin:

 

[ambrosia]

calgon

isnt that medicine for kids

i usually remove the bottom immersion element and use a wetvac

megaflows and santon have quite small holes for the immersion, in this case i didnt have enough room to get the wet vac in

quote to fit a water softener

oh i did that :yesnod:

Vinegar, strong vinegar

I was thinking that, my missus does it to the kettle and it works, have you tried it on an unvented tank

 

[solutions]

Diluted phosphoric acid. As is recommended for stubborn deposits on Viessmann heat exchanger's. Most commercial janitorial suppliers will have a variant. But you do need to be sure you can flush it all out when you are satisfied its done its job.
Critic acid powder is equally easy to buy but has the advantage of being food based, or you could use any coffee machine fed valet but when they are branded as such they tend to be expensive for the same ingredients.

 

[joni os]

Phosphoric acid more readily available than hydrochloric, which could formally be purchased for cleaning bricks. Now what passes as brick/patio cleaner is too dilute.

 

[BLOD]

megaflows and santon have quite small holes for the immersion, in this case i didnt have enough room to get the wet vac in

Try taping a flush pipe from a low level wc to the end of the wetvac tube, cut to the right length it works well

 

[Ermintrude]

Fill it with kamaco de scaler Boil and flush. Fill it, disconnect dcw and leave hot tap open - gas to escape.

 

[Ermintrude]

Flush it's nuts off or 2l of 40% phosphoric

 

[solutions]

Flush it's nuts off or 2l of 40% phosphoric

Was reading the ingredients of coke life yesterday as had not seen it before it has a green label, amongst the ingrediants mainly sugar and sweeteners was phosphoric acid, apparently equally good as a refreshing beverage as an lime scale remover and toilet cleaner.

 

[leepoll]

At our company we acid in one those central heating power flush barrels. Connect at inlet and outlet of cylinder, circulate for an hour, then flush several times with clean water.

 

[Unregistered]

Just use brick descaler

 

[Frelon]

Probably best (and quickest) is to replace the cylinder and recommend fitting a (salt based) water softener. Otherwise same thing will happen again [emoji1]