de-scaling water heater query

[MooseontheLoose]

Hi,

I have got the van at home to prep for winter. In the bailey handbook it says to descale the water heater annually using wine vinegar. I have already drained the heater down, do I have to put the vinegar in neat and how much do I put in.

The handbook give no clues and I am presuming that the element is in the bottom so it only takes a small amount?

The heater is a truma ultrastore and has only been used for 2 seasons since new.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Guest]

Vinegar is a mild acid and as such will dissolve the scale, which is limestone. A dilute solution will work, just leave it for a while, overnight, and flush out.

Alternatively buy the stuff sold to clean kettles or irons, it will do the same job.

 

[Guest]

By the way have you actually got scale build up? If you are in a soft water area then it is unlikely, if in a very hard area then it is possible. If the heater 'sings' and takes awhile to heat the water then you may have scale issues. I don't know if you can take the lid off or not. Never actually looked at mine as it is under the bed.

 

[Damian]

Moose, White Wine vinegar is the best type to use.

The Ultrastore is NOT able to be taken apart, the lid of the water container is welded in place and held by a clamping ring.

The heating element enters the Ultrastore about half way up the unit and the element is canted in a downwards direction to achieve full 9 litres of hot water.

There are a couple of ways of doing the descaling, one is to have about 10 litres of vinegar and fill the system fully, leave for a couple of hours and drain the vinegar back into containers to re use. Follow with a good flush with cold water to clear the pipes.

This is the cheapest long term way.

The advantage of doing this way is you also descale the whole pipe system and shower head at the same time.

The other is to have a dilution of 50% water to vinegar and throw it all away after use.

Whatever you do, do not heat the vinegar or vinegar mixture, it will foam all over the place!!!!

 

[MooseontheLoose]

Thanks for your help guys. I have only just seen Damian's post but have put in a bottle of wine vinegar 500ml into a full bucket of water then filled the heater tank. I will leave it overnight.

I have not noticed any performance issue with the heater just wanted to follow the manufacturer recommendation although I do live in a hard water area.

Having read your post Damian I am not sure my diluted mix will ave much effect, I can just imagine the looks from the cashier at Sainsbury's next year when I buy 20 bottles of white wine vinegar!!

 

[kenneth_374315528]

Even if you live in a hard water area surely you don't just use your van at home. You must go touring to other parts of the country which has soft water. Never heard of anybody having to descale their heaters. Ken

 

[Damian]

Moose, the mix you have put in will do some good, especially as you intend leaving it overnight, it will just take longer.

As for next year,go to Tesco, get the points and use them on one of their deals, where you get 4 times the face value of the vouchers!!

 

[JTQ]

On the point of water heaters needing descaling.

Back when we had the old Carver water heater I had cause to replace the main body's "O" ring thus needed open it up. I found a huge amount of limescale as both loose debris in the drum and bonded to the electrical heating element. Probably 5 to 6 years significant use mainly in Wiltshire environs.

My current Truma gets cleaned bi-annually with ordinary "white" as opposed to "wine" vinegar, that Macro do in 5 litre containers, its very much cheaper and seems to do the job.

By the way the Carver heater is aluminum coated with some protective resin not stainless steel as used in the Truma; I would not recommend putting descallers in a Carver.