Anything I can pour into water heater that will dissolve deposits?

[Doc]

Is there anything I can pour into a water heater that will dissolve mineral deposits and definitely not damage anything inside the tank? Hopefuly something that will work in a somewhat diluted solution since buying enough Lime-Away etc. to fill far enough to reach the lower element obviously isn't practical.

The tank is installed in such a way that once drained it would be simple to detach it and move it around so rinsing and draining several times shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

Thanks for all input.

[Jim Elbrecht]

I'd use muriatic acid on just the element. If you can't get the element out due to corrosion, then put some acid in a spray bottle and cut the lime with that until it is out. Then put a couple cups in a capped pvc pipe and dunk/rinse.

You can get the acid at a pool place if your local borg doesn't carry it.

Use goggles, gloves & a respirator- and wear your old jeans.

I'd rather replace the tank than remove/fill/rinse/rinse/rinse, & roll around in between each rinse.

Jim

[Jack]

Two hings come to mind. (1) Fill it with a cider vinegar solution and let it set for awhile should work and is pretty safe.. (2) would be a muratic acid solution, which would do the trick, but is much more potent and so, harder to determine strength of solution and time to let work. So I would try the vinegar first. a gallon of vinegar is realitive inexpensive and fairly safe to use. As actually you could taste the solution to determine how stong it was without any danger. Not so with muratic acid!

[hallerb]

is the tank old? probably:(

Its a bad investment in time and money.

the crud you clean will likely cause a leak either short term or long term.

besides a new hot water tank will reward you in greater capacity and overall lower operating expenses.

new tanks are foam lined and much more efficent than old ones.

to prevent this from reoccuring buy a new tank and add a water conditioner, no more crud in tank.

whats a nice new warrantied 12 year tank cost installed?

around 500 bucks.

but think in 12 years thats less than 42 bucks a year.

geez that isnt even the cost of a candy bar a week.

disturbing old tanks results in leaks............

[ransley]

I think anything strong enough would damage the parts of the tank like where the drain valve is, I dought its 100% glass lined, call the manufacturer.

[Joseph Meehan]

Just buy a new one. It may seem wasteful, but once they are that bad, it is too late to do any fixing. If you try you would just end up with it failing for some other reason in the next few months.

If you live in an area where the water tends to cause deposit problems, just make sure you drain the new one often. Make sure it has or you provide a good quality drain valve.

[Duff]

Absolutely not.

[Gregg]

Depending on where the tank is located.... If the tank blows and starts spewing water everywhere it can cause more than $500.00 damage. I think getting a new tank is a good idea.

[Phisherman]

I can't imagine anyone using muratic acid. Even diluted, it will attack metal because it is a strong acid, unlike acetic acid (vinegar) which is a weak acid. High-school chemistry.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If not properly rinsed out and diluted, it will also be on your face in the shower. I'd rather not risk it.

[hallerb]

ask this old house had a piece on this, rich flushed the tank, fixed a minor leak but warned it might not work. 2 months later the tank failed, and they did a autopsey:)

Although he had repeatedly flushed with powerful streams of water the tank was half full of gunk, they had cut a hole in it.

thats why he always recoimmends replacing tanks full of junk, because they are near their end of life and will soon fail.

trying to flush with enough vinegar to do much will likely cost 50 bucks, have you priced vinegar lately?

just pouring a gallon or two in will be ineffective

[N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc)]

...

I second that motion. The metal of the tank is not impervious to most anything used that will attack "stone".

Better to run your hot water fill through an RO unit... or at least some of its makeup.

David A. Smith

[Bill Penrose]

Here in Tucson, the mineral content is high, but instead of forming hard scale, the deposits are thin and soupy and easy to flush out. If the deposits are muddy, I'd recommend backflushing first. This will involve disconnecting some pipes.

When removing scale by any means, be sure to drain water from the heater valve and don't run it forward through the household system, or you may end up with bigger problems if chunks and pebbles of dislodged minerals run into the pipes, and a monster plumbing bill. .

You can use any acid, or citric acid, and let it sit in the heater for some time without heat. Then drain or backflush. Don't expect success, though, it's a tough, nasty job and some scale just won't budge.

Dangerous Bill

[Joe]

If you absolutely must experiment with a scale dissolving acid, use oxalic acid, which you can buy as automotive radiator flush. It is more potent than acetic acid, and far less harmful than muriatic (hydrochloric) acid. $$-wise it will be less costly, but you're still going to spend a fair amount, since the capacity of a typical automotive system (one package) is 1/10th or less of a water heater. HTH

Joe

[DonC]

Bill,

Is your water softened? If so, the stuff you're removing isn't the same as the typical hard water build up. IIRC, the softener converts calcium carbonate (hard stuff) to sodium bicarbonate which is flaky when dry but mushy (thin and soupy?) when wet. Flushing or dissolving sodium bicarbonate is relatively easy.

Just remember the "IIRC" I qualified my chemistry with : )

[Norminn]

clipped

And adding a strong acid to that will do what? Got a pressure valve?

[Bill Penrose]

Nobody around here softens their water because the mineral content is so high a softener would be exhausted almost immediately. Evaporation forms black rings inside the toilet bowl that won't come off without chemical help.

A water softener contains cation and anion exchangers that replace calcium and magnesium with sodium, and carbonates and sulfates with chloride. Again, because water is scarce here in the Sonoran Desert, the backwashing needed to regenerate the filter would be an unconscionable waste.

DB

[DonC]

I'm 25 miles south of Tucson in Green Valley so my water quality must be close to yours. Very hard! I'd guess that over half the people here have softeners. We don't yet because there's no iron in the water to discolor things. I'm sure we'd have one if we had a basement like everywhere else we've lived. It's hard to redo the plumbing when everything's buried under the slab. So the options are 100% softened which we don't want. Or only hot water softened which doesn't work out well since the cold water is so warm.

[suckcess]

I'll second the vinegar method. I would NOT use any acid or chemicals in a device that provides fresh water. Personally, I'd just open the drain valve and flush it for a half hour, then shut off the cold water supply valve and drain the tank, refill and repeat once again.

When you drain the tank, open at least one hot water faucet in the house to allow air to enter into the tank.

To those who suggest replacing a (working) tank, you got way too much money. I'd be happy to take some off your hands.

[do_see]

I think that they are suggesting that he not waste time and money and replace the tank. Obviously the tank is not working right or the op would not have posted the inquiry.