Descaling the hot water tank

[Mel]

I have read advice on how to do this on various bits of the Internet including on here. Most consensus appears to be to use white vinegar in a 50:50 dilution with water. Pump it into the hot water tank by the usual method. Then advice starts to vary:
1. Do you need to pull it all the way through to the taps or just enough so that it starts to spit?
2. What about the in line filter. Will this be OK?
3. Do you heat it up? Some sites say yes, but there is a post on here from Damien (whose advice I trust) who says don't as it foams up.
4. Anything else we should know.

Before anyone asks it definitely needs doing as the taps weren't running properly and the service guy said the gauze was all blocked up by lime scale. He has cleaned them out.

Thanks in advance,
Mel

 

[ProfJohnL]

The most likely part of the water system to scale is the heater becasue heating calcium rich water tends to make it precipitate, but as teh water gets pushed around the hot pipes it can carry some of the some scale with it and it can settle in taps and valves, so its best to consider a whole system descale which means getting full water flow to each tap.

Use the manufacturers recommended dilutions for any descaling product and do not leave it in teh system longer than recommended, as some solutions will start to attack metal and ceramic components in the system. In line filters should be removed or bypassed, as teh solutions will cause the filter to stop working or even to release contaminated material into the system.

It generally recommended to fit a new filter after you have descaled or cleaned a water system.