Descaling my unvented water cylinder.

oilboffin said:
I'd use White vinegar get a couple of gallons it's not dear and put that in leave it for a couple of hours then flush great stuff vinegar.
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Stadan20 said:
Never tried that before mate have you had much success ?
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Thanks. I have not started yet. Been put off for the moment by comments about only persons certified to G3 may work on unvented systems.. I think I will have a go soon. It is only a matter of time before the scale will for sure cause a problem. Possible descalers are Fernox, white vinegar, ascorbic acid (vitamin C). I use ascorbic acid to descale my coffee maker and vinegar to descale my kettle. White vinegar would be much cheaper than Fernox so is a prime candidate. I will make sure that the heater vessel is well flushed out before switching the immersions on. The heater guarantee is void anyway as there is no record of any servicing. Oh and I will plug in a pressure relief valve as an added safety feature for future in the 3/4 inch BSP hot supply for the washing machine which is now redundant. Should anything happen to the Temp/Pressure relief valve that is part of the heater, this additional relief valve will kick in. I could go further and put in an expansion vessel too in the same leg of the hot supply.
 
Well technically no you are not supposed to work on it what you have recommended would be pointless also
 
Stadan20 said:
Well technically no you are not supposed to work on it what you have recommended would be pointless also
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Thanks. I dont think I am doing anything to the heater. All I am doing is draining it and introducing a descaler. Please explain what would be pointless? Do you mean plugging in a pressure relief valve? Surely it cant do any harm.
 
Why would you want to be plugging in a pressure relief ? And how would you add the de scaler ?
 
You could consider fitting an electrolytic water conditioner in the supply to the UV cylinder.

Whilst not everyone will agree there are many, including most boiler manufacturers, who consider they provide a useful scale reduction function. But they are not a softener as such.

If this interests you then look at independent reviews and NOT the makers sales blurb.

Tony
 
eternaloptimist1 said:
The heater guarantee is void anyway as there is no record of any servicing.
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Best leave it alone it may be just about working,it will go faulty in time so search for a local company/technician who works on these cylinders.

How do you know it is scaled to such an extent it needs serious action ? it will have years of scale already is it showing any signs of scale build up ?

Maybe just consider exchanging the immersions when they fail,they are easily exchanged and sourced locally.
 
Stadan20 said:
Why would you want to be plugging in a pressure relief ? And how would you add the de scaler ?
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Once the cylinder is drained, I will use a fluid transfer pump to pump the descaler up the drain spigot. Alternatively pump the descaler up the 3/4 inch unused hot supply for the washing machine.I would like to plug in a pressure relief as an added safety feature. It will be plugged in where the old unused washing machine hot supply is. Right now that has a stop end. When I install the pressure relief valve, it will act as a backup pressure relief just in case of problems.
 
Old&Bold said:
Best leave it alone it may be just about working,it will go faulty in time so search for a local company/technician who works on these cylinders.

How do you know it is scaled to such an extent it needs serious action ? it will have years of scale already is it showing any signs of scale build up ?

Maybe just consider exchanging the immersions when they fail,they are easily exchanged and sourced locally.
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Thanks. I like to do preventative maintenance. My kettle gets really caked up so I imagine the heater is doing the same. One of the immersion heaters had the cutout operate and I suspect it may be suffering from scale build up and will keep on cutting out.
 
Agile said:
You could consider fitting an electrolytic water conditioner in the supply to the UV cylinder.

Whilst not everyone will agree there are many, including most boiler manufacturers, who consider they provide a useful scale reduction function. But they are not a softener as such.

If this interests you then look at independent reviews and NOT the makers sales blurb.

Tony
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Thanks. The manufacturer does indeed recommend fitting one of these. I may consider it but first I would like to descale.
 
eternaloptimist1 if you have time consider developing a pumped system that will descale the inlet (internal) feed tube as mentioned by Stadan20 this dipped and diffused internal feed pipe is prone to scale build up resulting in poor outlet flow.

Could make you a few £££'s
 
I have a customer with an ariston direct uv cylinder.
Every 3 or 4 years we take the immersion heater out and Hoover the scale flakes out with a wet vac.
You won't get the walls of your cylinder clean by using a descaling solution, but if you can empty any scale build up out which will encrouch on the bottom element it may help.
Any cylinder with a long warranty won't be covered for scale damage.
 
roguetrader said:
Every 3 or 4 years we take the immersion heater out and vacuum the scale flakes out with a wet vac.
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Done that a few times on the direct units,usually around 2-3 inches of scale flakes sitting in the base of the cylinder.
Cant be done on the indirect as the coil is in the way on many models,some indirect's can be vacuumed thou.

There is a way of opening up the internal flow pipe to restore full flow but it is not a recognised manufacture repair listed in the i&s instructions.;);)
 
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