The Best Way To Remove Scale From Water Heater?
We have a large amount of lime and calcium build up inside the tank of our water heater. The build up is interfering with the efficiency of the heating element. I am installing an in-line scale inhibiting filtration system, but the deposits are still in the tank. I have used a shop vac, but this only removed approximately 40%.
What is the best way to remove this scaling?
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October 16, 2009 @ 2:49 pm
You usually replace the HW heater..but this will work….Turn off water supply to heater and remove pipe to top. Drain heater from bottom with hose. Close off the bottom drain valve…fill tank with 1/4 mix of muriatic acid/water (use 5 gallon pails to mix, use a pump (like a drill pump) to pump in water from the top. Fill past the top element and let stand…there will be lots of fizzing, etc. The acid is attacking the calcium build up, but will not damage the elements. Allow to stand for about one hour, drain tank through hose….rinse well, reconnect top pipe, open water supply and flush out tank well. When finished, Turn off drain valve, allow tank to fill (open a HW faucet) and start water running through it. Remove filter screen from kitchen sink for a few days, little chunks of calcium will be flowing out. Good luck
October 16, 2009 @ 6:11 pm
Well, if you are talking about scale directly on the element, we just replaced the elements on ours. There were two, they were about 10 dollars each, and the old ones unscrewed and we screwed the new ones in. Our electric bill went down noticeably.
We had tried chipping it off, but that is some HARD stuff! Plus we were damaging the element. I don’t recall if there was lime scale on the tank walls, but replacing the heating elements was easy and CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!
October 16, 2009 @ 9:11 pm
I opened the drain valve on a customers and stuck a 1/2″ piece of copper tubing inside to break up the deposits. Then I turned the water on to flush the tank to remove as much of the debris as I could. I hope that helps.
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